Magome

Day 358 (June 21, 2019) – Magome, Japan

Our trip to Magome was a chance to escape the cities and spend some time outdoors. Located about halfway between Kyoto and Tokyo, Magome is a tiny village up in the mountains. Our primary purpose for going there was to go on a hike, but there was enough to entertain us for the two days we were there. We also found time to relax a bit and catch up on some reading.

The town of Magome.

Magome was so tiny but so cute. There was only one street that wound up a very steep hill. There were a few shops, a couple small restaurants, and the rest of the buildings were simply people’s houses. The pictures speak for themselves, but it felt like walking through some sort of old Japanese storybook village. It was relaxing and peaceful. It was a beautiful day, the sun was out, and everywhere in town was the sound of running water from a small stream that ran parallel to the road. We spent the morning in a small coffee shop taking in the scenery and the fresh mountain air.

There was only one street in Magome and it was mostly uphill.

The area around Magome.

In the afternoon we visited a nearby onsen, a Japanese hot spring. It was a great experience, although a little intimidating at first. We eventually figured out how it all worked. As soon as we walked in the door, we had to take our shoes off and store them in a locker. Then we went up to the counter and paid for the entrance fee and towel rental fee (all coming to less than $5 a person). We swapped our shoe locker key for a changing room locker key and went downstairs. With different bathing facilities for men and women and the signs being in Japanese, we were relieved to learn that we walked into the right one. In the changing room we stripped ourselves of our clothes, stored them in the locker, and went into the bathing facilities. Bathing suits aren’t allowed. You simply use the facilities in your birthday suit.

Feeling relaxed after visiting the onsen. We were waiting for the bus back to town. 

I admit that we did cheat a bit at this part, at least from a cultural experience perspective. You are supposed to take a shower before entering the hot springs, which we did, but we each used one of the normal standing-position western showers rather than the traditional Japanese bath taken while sitting on a stool. I was afraid of being too uncoordinated while seated. In any case, we were clean, so we proceeded outside to the hot spring. 

There was a medium-sized shallow pool of water fed by a small waterfall. A ring of white and rust-colored deposits had been left on the rocks from all the minerals. A cover provided shade over a third of the pool while the rest was open to the sun. The water was insanely hot but rotating in and out of the shade or sitting only on the very edge of the pool helped to keep a more comfortable body temperature. It was relaxing and it felt very therapeutic. I still felt a little awkward and exposed being quite so naked outside and surrounded by all these people, but it didn’t stop us from making a return trip the next day.

On our hike from Magome to Tsumago.

The weather was a bit gloomier on the day of our hike, but it was the only day we had to do it. We were walking a fairly popular trail that went 8 km from Magome to a nearby town called Tsumago. It’s not a particularly challenging hike, but it passed by beautiful forests, mountain streams, waterfalls, and small villages on the way. It was a very nice walk that took the entire morning for us to finish. The most entertaining part of the trail were signs that warned of bears. Every few minutes we came across a bell with instructions to use it to ward off the bears. Naturally, Travis had to actually ring every bell we came across but at least the bears stayed far away. I feel like the bear bells weren’t really necessary, but it provided some entertainment along the way.

The bear bells with warnings to ring them hard to ward off bears. Travis took up the challenge.

We ended our hike in the small town of Tsumago. Similar to Magome, Tsumago was another unbelievably quaint little Japanese mountain town. There were only a couple streets to walk down but it was fun to explore. We grabbed some iced coffees and a lunch of udon noodles before taking the bus back to Magome. Our timing could not have been better. The gloomy weather turned into a torrential downpour while we were on the bus but it miraculously disappeared just as fast as it had started by the time we got off at our stop. 

The small town of Tsumago.

We spent the rest of the day on a return trip to the onsen and relaxing at our accommodation. Feeling refreshed from our little mountain escape we were ready to take on Tokyo, our last stop in Japan.

Relaxing at our hostel.