Kiso town was one of the most famous and prosperous post towns along the “Nakasendo”
which was the major route between Tokyo(Edo) and Kyoto.
This town has 2 faces for the tourists now.
The first face is nostalgia of old days of Japan.
As mentioned above, this town was so important post town that many businessmen and tourists
came and stayed here.
If you walk around the downtown, you can feel the prosperity in those days.
The places to be visited are
1) Fukushima post town
Once you comes into this post town, you may feel as if you have been transported through time.
2) Barrier station
In old days of Japan people did not have freedom to visit different places. So, at each important places
there were barriers like here to check all the travelers.(like passport control now)
At Edo period they made 53 barriers including most famous one “Hakone” to protect the strangers from
coming into Edo(Tokyo).
Now everybody can go through this barrier including foreign travelers without any check.
3) Downtown
After you successfully go though the barrier, you can enjoy downtown walking and shopping.
Not like Harajuku Tokyo, you can see and feel old days of Japan here.
Among the shops I would like to recommend you sweet shop “Taguchi”.
At this shop you can buy rice cake covered with chest-nut paste.
It is really delicious! Please don’t fail to try this.
The second face of this town is nature. I will tell you in my different blog.