Typical daytime temperatures on the Nakasendo trail in mid-March are around 8 degrees. So, we were quite surprised to wake up on the second day of our hike to this!

Day 2 was originally going to be an 18km hiking day. But, given the weather plus the unexpectedly long hike the previous day, we decided to cut ourselves a break and let the train do more of the work. In Japan, that’s almost always an option!

We explored Kiso Fukashima a bit more in the morning, which was a very cute little town, especially with the snow. We bought ourselves some chopsticks at one of the shops that was open despite the storm.

Then, we took an express train to Nakatsugawa, where it was raining instead of snowing.

After a little stroll and a quick lunch, we doubled back to the small town of Nagiso, where it was snowing again. Mountain climates are wild!

From here, we had an easy, delightful 4km hike to our next ryokan in Tsumago.

Clearly, we had now made it to a section of the Nakasendo trail that people actually hike. There was signage for the trail everywhere, and even posters instructing you on where to take the best photos. Despite the tourist-worthiness of the trail, we saw only two other hikers, probably due to the weather.

Cherry blossoms!

We were pretty drenched and cold by the time we made it to Tsumago. So, we were exceedingly grateful to the owners of this steamed bun store for letting us hang out next to their heater. Also, the buns were delicious.

Only one more Nakasendo hiking day to go!