Rainy days in the Kiso

You planned to walk the Magome Pass, and the forecast has other ideas. Don't force it — a wet forest path is lovely for the first ten minutes and a chore after that. The valley has good rainy-day answers, and most of them start at Nagiso Station, fifteen minutes from our door.

Plan A: Narai-juku by train

Ride the JR Chuo line north for about an hour and you arrive in Narai-juku — a post town bigger than Magome or Tsumago, with a kilometre-long street of Edo-period buildings, and a far better wet-weather ratio: cafes, craft shops, sake tasting and lacquerware galleries you can hop between while the rain does its thing. Where Tsumago is a walk, Narai is a wander — which is exactly what you want under an umbrella.

Plan B: stay in and pick up a brush

The master has started running shodo (Japanese calligraphy) sessions at Kashiwaya — ink, brush, paper, and an hour of the kind of concentration that rain outside actually improves. Sessions depend on the day's schedule, so ask us and we'll see what we can do.

Plan C: hot water

A natural day-trip onsen sits a short drive up the valley (closed Wednesdays). We can arrange a taxi, or drive you ourselves when we're free — there are few better uses of a rainy afternoon than an outdoor bath in it.

And the cafes

Within a walk of the station you'll find a modern cafe with good English support, a soba place overlooking the Kiso River, and a log-cabin coffee house by Momosuke Bridge whose katsu curry has a local following. Ask us for the day's opening hours — this is deep countryside, and schedules are personal things here.