The other day I had the opportunity to walk part of an Edo period road that connects Takayama to Matsumoto called Nomugi Kaido.

We started at the Nyukawa city office and walked about 7 km into Takayama city. At times we were walking on paved streets and other times we were on dirt paths that probably resemble what the original road was like during Edo.

Today’s walk or sight check was part of a larger-scale regional tourism initiative aimed at establishing a long-trail walking route between Matsumoto and Takayama. The route existed hundreds of years ago as a military/trading route during the samurai era and linked Kamakura (former capital of Japan) to many rural areas throughout the country including Takayama, Matsumoto, and even Nagawa, Shirahone Onsen, and Norikura Kogen (formerly knowing as Onogawa village)

It will be fun to see how this route can be re-established for tourists to enjoy and how that could bring a new kind of trading back into this rural area.