October 19, 2025
Day 47 — Matsumoto to Kiso
Marilee here.
A day of contrasts: peaceful riverside backroads and roaring highway traffic; tunnels and tourist towns.
We left our Airbnb somewhat regretfully — it had been a very pleasant stay — and set off in good time (after a long chat with a Mexican cycle tourist who rolled up as we were loading our bags — for some reason we frequently seem to end up talking when we should be hitting the road!).
The entry into Matsumoto had been quick and easy, but we were prepared for some unpleasant city riding to get through it and out the other side. What a great surprise to find that there was a quiet pathway along the river that took us much of the way through town. Along the route Tom spotted a brightly painted temple spire and we detoured into another neighborhood of twisting lanes and alleyways to have a closer look:
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Adventures on narrow traffic-free roads continued after we left the city behind: our route took us along a network of little roads following the Kiso River. We alternated between gentle wooded hillsides and flat agricultural land — rice fields, apple orchards, vineyards. Along the way we passed through small enclaves of rural homes, too tiny to even qualify as villages. At some point over the past couple of weeks, I realized, the number of abandoned houses we were seeing had sharply reduced, and rural homes and villages had become much more prosperous looking, often with beautiful and elaborate gardens full of flowers and carefully tended shrubbery. A sign that we are leaving the northern hinterland and moving into central Japan I guess.
This very pleasant easy riding went on for so long, I began to entertain wild hopes that we might be able to get all the way to Kiso on these riverside roads, without any climbing at all. “Ha ha!”, said the riding gods, “you’re not getting off that easy.” And with that, we rejoined the highway and encountered our first tunnel of the day.
And what a doozy: 1.5km long, with a sidewalk raised almost a meter above the roadway, only accessible by a set of narrow stairs. We had to unload the bikes to get them up the stairs, heave the bags up and reattach everything and then walk the bikes through the tunnel (the sidewalk was almost wide enough for cycling, but not quite). And then on the other end we had to do the whole unloading, ferrying bags and bikes downstairs, and reloading shenanigans all over again.
So the highway wasn’t our favorite part of the day, to say the least — but the best part of the day was still to come: Narai, one of the many old “post towns” on the ancient Nakasendo route between Tokyo and Kyoto. The post towns provided lodging for travelers on the 250km+ journey between the two cities—some of the old inns are still in operation today. We rode through a number of these towns, where remnants of the old streetscapes were still visible, with old wooden buildings side by side with more modern ones, but there are a few towns that have been preserved as living museums and the original buildings restored: Narai was the first of these that we encountered.
We ambled around, enjoying the ambiance. The old town was really one long narrow street, now a row of restaurants, inns, and boutiques, interspersed with historical homes and museums.
After leaving Narai in early afternoon, we had more contrasting riding experiences — some great off-highway ups and downs, twists and turns, through tiny villages and along fields and forest — and some nerve-jangling highway riding. Including another tunnel — this one 2km long, also with a sidewalk too narrow for cycling. So altogether we spent almost an hour of the day walking the bikes through highway tunnels. Our nerves were a bit shot by the end of the day!
We came into Kiso Fukushima by backroads, riding through hilly neighborhoods in the waning light on the way to our guesthouse on a hill overlooking the river.
Today's ride: 60 km (37 miles)
Total: 2,385 km (1,481 miles)
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