April 2021 The last stage of the Shionomichi Trail going into Matsumoto was not nearly as boring as I thought it might be. Our daughter, Nicola, accompanied me so that might have made it more interesting as she doesn’t tolerate navigation errors and so I had to be on my toes! I assumed it would [...]
This Spring I decided to walk the last 40 kilometers of the Shionomichi Trail going to the start/finish of the trail in Matsumoto. I did it on two separate days about a month apart. Spring is a wonderful season in the high plains and mountains of Nagano as the earth starts to warm up again [...]
One of the scenic highlights of walking the Shionomichi (Salt Trail) are the views of the awe-inspiring North Alps. The entire length of the 120-kilometer Shionomichi trail runs along the bottom of these mountains that rise to over 3,000 meters and include some of the best skiing, snowboarding, and alpine hiking spots in Japan. There [...]
After a long and damp rainy season, Kazuko and I were bursting to get out and do some long- distance walking, but we didn’t think our legs would be up to tackling a mountain peak yet. So we thought what better place to walk then the scenic and gentle second half of the Shionomichi (Salt [...]
We hope that however and wherever you have been spending the Covid-19 lockdown that you are staying physically and mentally healthy. Hopefully, we can all get through this tough time without getting sick and losing our incomes. Hopefully too, we can start getting out and about and eventually being able to travel to Japan to [...]
Ever since I first came to Japan and backpacked around western Japan for 2 months during my summer university vacation over 45 years ago, I have been fascinated by Japanese architecture. I couldn’t believe that the great big temples, shrines and castles that I visited on that first trip, like the Todaiji in Nara, Izumo [...]
ShumiStay Japan customers who have been on some of our trips will have encountered various museums and archeological sites associated with the Jomon period 3,000 to 5,000 years ago. This interesting article indicates that there is a revival in learning and experiencing the Jomon culture. https://features.japantimes.co.jp/jomon-revival/ Here is a photo of one of our groups [...]
As travelers to Japan would know, many of the well preserved historic towns have been commercialized and over-run with tourists. However, if you are prepared to go a bit off the beaten mass tourism track, there are plenty of gems to be found. One them is Uchiko, in Ehime Prefecture on the island of [...]
For our lovers of Japanese washi “paper”, I recommend checking out the March edition of “Highlighting Japan” ( a free monthly magazine with various interesting articles about Japan) which showcase washi’s strength, beauty, and its potential. The online magazine HIGHLIGHTING JAPAN is published once a month by the Japanese government to help readers better understand [...]
For the last two years we have been taking groups on the Shio-no-michi (Salt Trail) walk which runs for 120km from Itoigawa on the Sea of Japan to Matsumoto in the centre of Honshu. We have focused our 7- day walks on the first half of the trail which follows a deep river valley with [...]
