companies including Toyota.

Despite being sometimes overlooked as a tourist destination, this city has much to offer visitors,

and also makes for an excellent base to travel to the breathtaking attractions located nearby.

Upon leaving the big city and entering the mountainous interior, visitors can experience

a world frozen in time, with stunning natural vistas acting as

the backdrop to excellently preserved feudal era towns, all underscored

by enchanting traditional culture.

I'm Sam Evans, staff writer for japan-guide.com and for this journey, I'll be enjoying a

3-day side trip from Nagoya, taking in the city's interesting technological attractions

before going 'back in time' if you will, to explore the beautiful and historically

important old post towns of the Kiso Valley before ending with a picturesque river cruise.

Here's the plan: On day 1 we spend the morning in Nagoya before

heading to the Kiso Valley, where we will spend most of Day 2.

On Day 3 we leave the Kiso Valley and end our journey with a boat ride along the Tenryu

river.

So, follow along as we go on a “Side Trip from Nagoya through the Kiso Valley”

Day 1

We start our journey at Nagoya Station and head to the south of the city to see the popular

SCMAGLEV and Railway Park, one of the best train museums in the country.

After this, it's back to Nagoya Station from where we'll head to a nearby restaurant

for a lunch of tebasaki, chicken wings deep fried without batter, and one of the city's

best-loved specialities.

Then we will take a short train ride to Sako Station to check out the nearby Toyota Techno

Museum, and finally board a Shinano Wide View limited express train from Nagoya Station

all the way to Nagiso Station, where a bus will take us to the town of Tsumago where

we will end our day in a traditional inn.

So we're here at the SCmaglev and Railway Park in Nagoya and this museum is dedicated

to educating visitors on developments in Japan's high speed rail.

There are lot of interesting trains on display including the maglev over there and a ton

of exhibits to keep train enthusiasts occupied.

So we have arrived in central Nagoya and right by Nagoya station we've ducked into a Tebasaki

restaurant, now Tebasaki is a Nagoya speciality, its deep fried chicken wings made without

batter, and in Nagoya they're typically sprinkled with sesame seeds.

They look absolutely incredible.

This is the Toyota Techno Museum and this large museum recounts Toyota's history from

its beginnings in the textile industry going forward into the automotive industry and there's

so much cool stuff here.

From here, we head into the Kiso Valley where we'll be spending the majority of our time

from here on out.

During feudal times, this scenic area was incorporated along the Nakasendo, one of Japan's

five main highways.

Back in those days, most travelers traversed this important national route on foot, and

so post towns were located every few kilometers to provide food and accommodation.

In the Kiso Valley a few of these old post towns, including Tsumago and Magome where

we'll be visiting, have been excellently preserved to resemble how they looked centuries ago.

Our last stop is the town of Tsumago, one of the best preserved post towns in Japan,

where we will stay at a quaint inn for the night.

Upon checking-in we find our room and prepare for dinner.

After arriving early I've enjoyed a lovely

bath and now I'm about to enjoy this equally lovely looking meal.

We have tempura, we have sashimi, we have rainbow trout and rice, and grasshoppers which

I'm interested to try so I'm going to dig in.

Itadakimasu!

Day 2

We'll first spend the morning walking through Tsumago's pleasant streets, stopping at

the interesting Honjin and Wakihonjin historic building complexes.

From here we'll take a bus to the quaint town of Ochiai, stopping briefly along the

way at Magome to have a regional local specialty for lunch, tempura soba noodles.

At Ochiai we'll try our hand at writing Japanese in a calligraphy experience offered

at Kofukuji Temple before calling it a day and heading to our accomodation for the night.

So now we are exploring the main street of Tsumago.

Now Tsumago rose to prominence during the Edo period when it was as a post-town along

the Nakasendo, one of the old highways that connected Tokyo with Kyoto.

We first take a quick tour of the Honjin, a reconstructed building that in feudal times

served as accomodation for the highest-ranking officials when they passed through the town.

A short walk from the Honjin stands the Wakihonjin, who's main building dates back to the 19th century.

This complex was another inn that served high-ranking travelers, secondary in prestige to the Honjin.

Following this morning of exploration we take the bus to Magome, where we will enjoy a nice

warm lunch.

So we ducked out of the cold into this traditional Japanese restaurant and I'm about to indulge

in a traditional dish: tempura soba.

I can't wait to get stuck into this coz not only does it look delicious but it looks

hot and right now I'm freezing so let's go for it.

After alighting the bus at Ochiai we make the short walk to the Kofukuji Temple, where

I'll experience the ancient art of Japanese calligraphy.

Following this we'll make our way to our lodgings for the night.

So after the calligraphy experience earlier today we arrived at our nearby accomodation

for the night and we are about to enjoy another amazing looking meal.

There are local delicacies including wild boar meat (inoshishi), sashimi and grasshoppers

again, I'm beginning to see a trend here!

Day 3

On the last day of this trip, we start off with a 30 minute walk on the Nakasendotrail

to Magome, where we will check out what the town has to offer.

We then walk to the Misaka parking area from where a bus will take us to Iida station.

From there we will visit the Iida City Kawamoto Kihachiro Puppet Museum, after which we will

board a local train and head to Tenryukyo station where we will take a scenic boat ride

along the Tenryu River to end our adventure.

From Magome we make a 20 minute walk toward the Mikasa Bus Stop, from where a highway

bus will take us to Iida station, where the puppet museum is located.

The museum is a short walk from Iida station and showcases the city's history of traditional

bunraku puppetry with some very well crafted and detailed puppets.

So we're here on the Tenryu Line Kudari, which is a river boat cruise manned and paddled

in the traditional way and it offers absolutely stunning views of the surroundings and what

a great end to an amazing trip!

And that concludes our exploration of this beautiful region of Japan.

Thanks for joining me, I hope this video has been enjoyable and even inspire some ideas,

should you be planning a trip from Nagoya.

For more information about our itinerary or to watch another video, click the links on

the screen now, or head over to Japan-Guide.com, your comprehensive up-to-date travel guide,

first hand from Japan.

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about Japan.

Happy travels.