Exploring the Kiso Valley in Nagano

Hi this is Quinlan and today I'm not up in Iwate where you usually find me but down in Nagano Prefecture along one of the ancient medieval routes between Edo, old Tokyo and Kyoto. I'm here in the Kiso Valley on the Nakasendo. I was invited by a local promotional organization to come down and explore and share with you the connection between timber, the old cypress trees here, samurai and the ancient culture of this valley. In the next three videos, this one and two more, I'll be going from the Kiso Valley in Nagano a little bit farther south into Gifu Prefecture and then all the way into Aichi exploring different aspects of this traditional route the Nakasendo. This is Shintaki Falls, one of the most sacred waterfalls here at the foot of Mount Ontake. Devotees of this mountain faith believe that when they die, their spirits can come to reside at Mount Ontake here. While they're still alive, they erect gravestone-like rocks and place them at the base of this mountain. Then they believe when they die, their spirits will be able to go where they had reserved with those symbolic gravestones. And you see them all over here. There's all these graveyards that aren't graveyards. When you visit the Kiso Valley along the Nakasendo, I hope you also get a chance to come up here into the mountains and see some of these amazing sights that have been sacred to locals for millennia. Well, centuries anyway. This place here is amazing in the winter, but even in the summertime, it's quite beautiful. And in the summer, maybe you could try your hand at meditating under a waterfall, if such is your persuasion. I definitely do if I was here in the summer. But yeah, you don't want to stand under these icicles right here. This hot springs is an iron-based hot springs, which is actually pretty rare. I'm told the water is actually red. Let's check it out. Normally with the hot springs, you can't film at all. You're not even allowed to take photos. But I was given special permission to show you what the inside of it looks like. So let's take a look. It's all red. Wow. It's like a red-brown color. Rustic area to sit and wash yourself off before you get in. And then, wow. Japanese hot springs are said to have all kinds of beneficial properties. This one, in addition to being good for your skin and your joints and muscle tension and pain, is also said to help with insomnia and even depression. There's a sign right outside there with like a list of 50 different things that this hot springs is good for. When you think about it, coming out to the base of a volcano, high in the mountains, sitting and relaxing in a hot bath while watching snow fall all around you. I think that would help with insomnia, stress, maybe even depression, regardless of the qualities of the water. But okay, I'm going to take a bath now. I'll see you on the other side. Okay, it's lunchtime and I wanted to show you one of the local dishes, We need it right here at Kawai, right in front of Kiso, Fukushima station. All right, I need some lunch. Get a ticket and you're good. I wanted to explain about the traditional suki soba noodles, but instead of me just repeating what I read, let's ask the owner of the shop, Mr. Kawai. It's ready. Okay, so this is suki soba. I've actually never tried this before. I've had lots of soba and I've so far never met a soba I didn't like, but these buckwheat noodles are a local specialty. I was told by the owner that putting a little bit of the chili pepper spice on here makes it even better. So I'm going to put just a touch of this on here and let's give it a try. Itadakimasu. Yeah, looks good, huh? Sort of a mild, subtle acidity to it. That's really good. There's also mushrooms on here. Recently a lot of people are talking about fermented food. Maybe you've heard of lactobacillus. Am I butchering the pronunciation there? But this is that same healthy fermentation microorganisms that you find in kimchi and certain types of good yogurt, and so it's really good for your microbiomes and your guts. Okay, I'm gonna stop talking and start eating. Anyways, if you're here, it's right across the street from Kiso Fukushima station and for 650 yen you get this big healthy bowl of local noodles. I'm here now inside Nakadori Shuzo with the kuruboto, the owner, Mr. Minami. And this is the Nakadori Junmai Ginjo, which goes really well with soba noodles and subtle tasting Japanese food. One of the fun things, one of the many fun things about sake is learning about all the ways that it matches with food. Some of them are better alone, some of them go great with oilier fatty foods or fried food. You can't see my face right now, but my smile has grown larger and larger. That was some really good sake. What is the Nakasendo and where is the Kiso Valley? In the medieval era, Edo and Kyoto, Edo being Tokyo, were connected by a number of roads. The most popular one being this Nakasendo, which translates to central mountain road. And it goes through the Kiso Valley, through these mountains in Nagano here, to connect those two cities. And all along this route, there sprung up all these little post towns, they're called, which would provide lodging, food, all sorts of crafts to support those travelers. Why were people traveling so much down these roads? Well, the reason for that was actually rooted in the feudal system here. Without getting into too many details, the local lords here had to send their relatives, as well as go themselves, for about half the time to stay in Edo. And so there was often a procession of these noble samurai lords through the mountains on their way to Edo. When one of these feudal lords traveled, they didn't travel alone or just with their family. It was usually a procession of around 3,000 people, including the porters, different craftsmen, chefs, you name it. It could span as many as three kilometers. And so to support all of these noble travelers, there needed to be a lot of nice inns, good places to eat, you name it. And so all of these post towns sprung up all over the place. This, where I am right now, this is Naraijuku, which is one of the best preserved examples of these post towns. It's wonderful to get a chance to walk around and explore it and show some of that to you. It's a bit cold today, but the fact that this is a frozen wasteland means that there's not a lot of other people around here, which is kind of nice to have it all to yourself, more or less. If you come in the summertime, or anytime really from the spring, from April or earlier, a lot of these shops will be open and they'll be showcasing all sorts of local crafts and it's fun to walk in here. I actually came here with my parents when they were visiting a few years back. One of the reasons why this place, Naraijuku, became one of the more prosperous of these post towns is because it's just at the base of the Torii Pass, which back in the day, in the medieval period, say 200 years ago, was the most challenging place to cross on foot. And so people would come, rest up here, collect supplies before they made the attempt to cross the pass. The wood here, connecting with the samurai culture, are really the lifeblood of this entire area. And you can draw a line of what made people settle here, farming the wood here, bringing it down, building these structures, engaging in local crafts relating to that wood, and in some cases, even riding the wood down the rivers all the way towards the larger city in the open valleys on the coast. Suffice it to say, in the days of the samurai, wood was king here. Since this video is all about wood, I thought it would make sense to explore and visit a place that does lacquer, especially using the local cypress trees. So with a little research, we found this place here. This is the Maruki Kozaki Lacquer Workshop that we're going to visit, and hopefully we'll get to talk with the artisan himself. We'll see. This is one of the artisans who works here. When we were young, we didn't have access to a lot of wood like we do today. So we decided to use a little bit of wood to make a shape that we could use for a long time. And that's how the technique called Magewappa was born. This Magewappa is made from cypress trees. It's made from a very thin material, which is split, bent, and fixed. It's also used in bento boxes. Interesting. Thank you very much. You're welcome. Ontake Shrine is the center of faith for this mountain devotional tradition. And what a great atmosphere it has. I really love this shrine. This is one of the best shrines that I've visited, honestly. It's on the edge of the mountain. There's these great cliffs, all these stairs, statues, these almost graveyard-looking beijinghi where people will want their spirits to come. It's fantastic. I hope seeing some of the local artisans, local foods, and the just beautiful architecture in these little towns has been interesting for you. I love that too, but my heart really is up here in the mountains. And so at the end of this video, I wanted to take you up to this wonderful shrine up here to pay my respects, as it were, to the mountain gods. In the next video, we'll be going a little bit farther south in the Kiso Valley to see another couple of these little post towns and learn more about the medieval traditions that formed the present in the way it is today. I hope to see you there. Thank you so much for watching, and I'll see you on the trails.