'There goes our train," said Yuta Arai, calmly, as the train we had been meant to catch whooshed by. We'd missed it by two minutes. It was late afternoon on a humid Monday in July, and we were walking to the Nojiri train station in Japan's Nagano prefecture. We'd been walking for about 18km, climbed up steep hills in the woods that make Joburg's Westcliff stairs feel like child's play, and were all exhausted.
We were a group of six - a tour guide, Yuta, our tour group of four and an assistant guide for the day, and were halfway through our eight-day walking tour of central Japan. Today had been tough, physically and mentally.
With an hour to kill before the next train arrived, we made our way into the sleepy village of Okuwa, stopping at Donguri Café, where the charming little old lady who runs it served the best rare ("no bake") cheesecake.
She asked Yuta where we were all from, noted it down in her book, the same one from which she would later show Yuta a rudimentary sketch of him she had drawn. I couldn't tell if he was charmed or embarrassed, and she had the most delightfully mischievous energy about her.
As we were about to leave, she shuffled over, smartphone in hand, and said something in Japanese. An app translated and voiced: "It's a long journey - take care."
That encounter was a prime example of how hospitable, friendly and respectful people in Japan are. Days earlier, a man at a train station in Tokyo had offered to buy me a train ticket after the machine wouldn't take my card. While I stood on a street corner in the city, someone had walked up to me and offered to help with directions. On the train, strangers had carried my heavy luggage for me.
I was in the country with Walk Japan, a company that has walking and climbing tours of the fascinating and mysterious far east island. Ours was the Nakasendo Way, a route following one of the country's ancient highways that stretched from Kyoto to Edo (now Tokyo), wound through mountains and was mainly used by silk workers, government officials and the military. The full tour is 11 days, but because it gets really hot in the summer (when our tour takes place), for that season it's compressed to eight days.
I had landed in Tokyo a few days before, staying at a hip art hotel (Park Hotel, which has themed rooms and art exhibitions) and wandering the city alone at close to midnight.
After getting lost in a gigantic multi-storey store called Bic Camera the following day, almost missing my train and lugging the heaviest suitcase known to man up a very crowded staircase, I made it on time for the scenic, two-hour train ride to Nagoya.
It was there I met the tour group: three Australians (surprise) - Paddy Hannigan, and married couple Trish and Brett Lentfer. Yuta, is Japanese-American, present yet laidback (in charge but not bossy) and by the end of the tour we were all sad to say goodbye to him (and each other).
We'd then caught a train to Ena, our first post town of the tour. Post towns were stops along the Nakasendo where food, shelter, postal services, horse changes, and tea houses were available for travellers. Our first stop in Ena was the Hiroshige Museum of Art, a woodcut painting museum. It was my idea of Japan brought to life: tech and tradition meeting in the form of a robot assistant called Pepper in a place where you learn about a thousands-year-old art form.
Our lodging for that night was the Ichikawa Inn, which has been in the same family since the 1640s. Its current keeper is the 16th generation - her mother and 96-year-old grandmother occupied the role before her, and all three of them welcomed us with a delicious kaiseki (multi-course) dinner.
As a lover of walks and hikes, I was confident heading to Japan that the walks would only be a little bit challenging. On the first walk day - to our inn in Ochiai, a 10km trek that went from suburbs to wooded terrain - I quickly realised I had either underestimated the walks or overestimated my capabilities. I chewed on electrolyte tablets and inhaled from my asthma pump in profound regret, as people in their cute boxy cars slowly drove past and nodded politely at the group of hikers in their neighbourhoods.
Super-fit Brett decided to carry my backpack for me for the rest of the walks, an act of kindness which made it easier for me to climb the many steep uphills we had to tackle.
Our ryokan (traditional inn), Shinchaya, was in the middle of the woods and I could hear birds chirping and streams of water from my room. The air? Crisp and delicious.
We started day three at a Shinto shrine in the woods before walking to the touristy post town of Magome, where I took a million pictures of the architecture and Instagram-friendly views and drank a R78.33 cappuccino from Hillbilly Coffee, which could easily have been in Brooklyn or Braamfontein and was manned by two long-haired, black-clad, man bun-rocking baristas.
We then climbed up to the Magome Pass, a high point where we could take in the scenery of the town and its surroundings, before venturing into the woods. Our walk to the next post town of Tsumago was cut short after Yuta decided the rain would get too heavy, so a taxi rescued us from a quaint hillside café that served rooibos tea.
We visited Okuya, a 600-year-old inn for government officials that's now a museum, in Tsumago - the town we explored further the following morning. Our inn was old and traditional - it had creaking wooden floors and a fireplace.
From Tsumago, we made our way to Nagiso and its famous Momosuke-bashi, a 107-year-old bridge suspended over the Kiso River, built by Momosuke Fukuzawa, the man credited with bringing hydroelectricity to Japan. He has a fascinating, life-long love story with a geisha, something worth googling.
Our next stop was a hamlet near the Kakizore River, which then brought us to Nojiri train station and the Okuwa cafe with the loveable old lady. We caught the next train to our home for the night: the bustling, alpine Kiso-Fukushima, a popular ski resort in winter.
Day five was my favourite. We made our way to the Kaida Kogen, a plateau overlooked by Mount Ontake, Japan's second-highest volcano. Following the morning forest walk, we had lunch at Poppo-ya, a family home at the foot of the mountains that doubles as a museum, curio shop and Italian café.
Owner Hideji Ando moved there from Tokyo with his wife after retirement. Mr Ando cooks all the food and is a train enthusiast. His miso pizza was criminally delicious and so was the bacon and shiitake mushroom pasta. For dessert he served us apple cake, before taking out his shamisen (a three-stringed traditional instrument) and playing music.
Days six and seven were spent in the Kaida region and highlights included the three-hour uphill climb through the Nomugi mountain pass, which is steeped in dark history that involves countless deaths and treacherous weather. When we got to the top of the pass, we were greeted by Buddhist statues overlooking the woods below.
Another highlight was climbing the Torii Toge mountain pass - a day that began with a visit to a gorgeous Shinto temple and ended at the post town of Narai, my favourite of the post towns because it was the most beautiful.
We ended the tour in relative modernity: in Matsumoto, the artsy city of 250,000 people. Our final morning saw us visit the 400-year-old Matsumoto Castle, listed as a national treasure. Because of its dark colour it is also known as the Black Crow.
After the tour ended, our group headed to the Matsumoto City Museum of Art to check out the permanent exhibition by Matsumoto native and art demigod Yayoi Kusama, known for her trademark polkadot art.
A few days after I got home, I tweeted that the trip had made me feel at peace and reminded me that "the world is a big and beautiful place. And its arms are wide open". The same can be said of Japan.
ABOUT WALK JAPAN
Founded in 1992 by Hong Kong University academics Tom Stanley and Richard Irving, Walk Japan will have a total of 23 tours available from September (currently there are 19). The company started out offering study trips for students of Japanese history and Japanese social geography. Each tour has its own fitness level requirement (from low to extremely fit) and can accommodate a maximum of 12 people. Walk Japan doesn't cancel tours - even if only one person books it.
ABOUT THE NAKASENDO WAY TOUR
The Nakasendo Way tour takes place from March to June, and September to November, and its duration is dependent on the season. The full tour is 11 days, although in the Japanese summer it's shortened to eight days because of the heat and humidity. There is a shorter, five-day version of the tour that focuses on the central part of the Nakasendo. Prices for the 11-day tour are between R70,000 and R74,000 per person (depending on availability, time of year and exchange rate). Pricing includes accommodation, transportation and most meals for the duration of the tour. Visit walkjapan.com for more info.
• Boshomane Tsotetsi was a guest of Walk Japan.
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