Japan’s quiet trails: 5 walks away from the crowds

Japan welcomed more visitors last year than ever before, and in spring it can feel as if all of them are standing in front of the same torii gate. Yet the country is seventy per cent mountain and forest, crossed by footpaths that pilgrims, merchants and samurai walked for a thousand years. Here are five that I return to again and again.

1. Kurama to Kibune, Kyoto

Take the little train from Demachiyanagi to Kurama and climb through the temple grounds into a forest of giant cryptomeria. The path crosses a ridge of tangled roots and drops into the narrow valley of Kibune, where in summer the restaurants build platforms over the river. Two hours, and you will wonder where Kyoto went.

2. The Dainichi-goe, Kumano Kodo

A short, steep section of the pilgrim route linking the Grand Shrine at Hongū with the hot spring village of Yunomine. It takes about ninety minutes, passes a tiny mountain shrine and ends with a bath in one of the oldest onsen in Japan.

3. Magome to Tsumago, Nakasendo

This is the most famous stretch of the old post road between Kyoto and Edo, but walk it early or late and you will have it largely to yourself. The path climbs over a pass through bamboo and cedar, past waterfalls and an old teahouse where an elderly volunteer still pours free green tea.

A tip on timing

Most groups walk from Magome in the morning. We start in Tsumago after lunch, walking against the flow, and arrive in Magome as the day-trippers leave.

4. The Torii Pass, Narai

Narai is the longest of the Kiso valley post towns, a kilometre of dark wooden houses and sake breweries. Behind it, a stone-paved trail climbs to the Torii Pass, where a stone gate looks out over the mountains of the Northern Alps.

The quiet is not an absence of people. It is the sound of a forest that has been walked through, gently, for centuries.

5. The Yamanobe-no-michi, Nara

Often called Japan’s oldest road, this path wanders south from Nara through persimmon orchards, rice paddies and tiny villages, linking ancient shrines and burial mounds. Farmers leave unmanned stalls of fruit and vegetables with an honesty box.

How to walk them well

Go on weekdays, start early, and carry small change for drinks machines and shrine offerings. Above all, slow down. These paths reward the walker who stops to read a stone marker, to drink from a spring or to sit for a moment beside a moss-covered Jizō statue.