Nagoya – Toyota City: Day 02 – Tsumago-juku

Posted on 7 Sep 20258 Sep 2025 by CY

About a 20 minute drive – or 7.6km walk if one is up to it – is Tsumago-juku, the next post town along the Nakasendo trail after Magome-juku. Magome was busy, while Tsumago was in comparison much more laidback. The trail that cuts through this small town is also flat, so much easier to walk through than Magome.

Walking up the small trail from the car park to the main Nakasenso trail that cuts through Tsumago-juku.

The small trail with the bus stop behind me connects to the Nakasendo trail here. On the left is a short stretch with the famous carp rock, while the right is where the main stretch of Tsumago-juku is, and also in the general direction of Magome-juku

Few visitors about on this warm Sunday mid-afternoon.

A positively tiny water wheel on the walk to see the carp rock.

This was formerly a large rock that looked like carp, but it got deformed by a 8.0 magnitude earthquake in 1891.

Many of the shops were not opened on this Sunday afternoon.

You can find a small cascading waterfall at Omata Bridge.

7.8km back to Magome-juku.

These two post-towns and the trail that goes through them really gives me a small sense of the walking roads that the Japanese from several hundred years ago would have used to travel between the two major cities of Edo/Tokyo and Kyoto.

Visitors not on guided tours can get to Tsumago via buses.

That’s a wrap for this day trip. The journey back to Nagoya city took about 2 hours, with a brief rest stop along the way too. I’ll be heading to Toyota City tomorrow for the conference, but next Saturday will have a few days again for more sightseeing. Stay tuned!

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