There is an ancient postol route, hundreds of years old, which was a foot highway used in the Edo era. The track has been preserved, along with 20+ towns along the way. These towns have preserved their wooden buildings and prohibited modern stigmata such as power lines. Vehicles are prohibited in the towns between 8am and 4 pm. The cobblestone streets have been preserved.
We decided to walk a small part of the route.
The township of Tsumago is one of the postal towns.
We decided to walk from Magome Pass towards Tsumago, a nice downhill leg, along rivers and waterfalls.
There are bells along the way. The sign says "hit bell hard to keep away bears". So I made sure I did just that.
Later on the walk a Japanese hiker was wearing bells on his pack -same reason I suppose. I think I'll invest in some bells! I'm a bit of a squib like that....
We came to a building which has, according to today's host, been serving tea to travellers (walkers) for three hundred years!
The building was occupied by a farmer, and some of his equipment was on display. I was particularly interested in the rope spinning machine. The rope is made from rice stalks which are fed in while the spinner is operated by foot pedals.
It's really not much different from spinning wool.
We enjoyed a cup of tea, and were joined by other walkers, from Japan and also from France.
The timber floors were polished by feet, and the building had a great patina of age. I guess they don't have termites in Japan!
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