Starting to describe a little today’s visit in Narai Juku.
This town was one of the stop where people would take a break on their long journey in between Edo (Tokyo) and Kyoko on the Nakasendo 中山道, the mountain pass that connected those 2 main cities at the time.
Nowadays, it is the longest traditional street with inns as it extends to about 1 km.
Don’t be fooled by today’s visit. I have been extremely lucky that there were so few people. This place is usually packed.
When we visited the inn, I talked about a “narrow path” (well, not so narrow 😉 I found out reading the leaflet of the inn in the train that this was the indoor alley that enabled to take the horses on the other side where the Naka Niwa 中庭 (courtyard? ) was.
The owner, is at the origin of Narai Juku becoming so well known and popular in Japan and now around the world. He did lots of things in that direction in his 20s. He is the 6th generation of the family who have been owning the house for about 200 years!
The bento boxes that have an oval or round shape are called Menpa.
I checked and I was right. It takes about 3.30 hours by train from Tokyo station.
The price is around 6.800 yen (about 63 dollars, today’s rate).
More to come tomorrow, when I feel better!
Thanks for watching!
AloJapan.com