Central Japan: 7 Days Beyond the Tourist Trail

Nagoya → Nakasendo → Takayama → Shirakawa-go

Okay, we'll admit it - we're biased. We live in Nagoya, we spend our weekends in Aichi, Gifu, and Central Japan. We think Central Japan is the best part of the country, and this is our attempt to convince you!

This route takes you through the part of Japan that most visitors fly over on their way between the famous cities. It starts in Nagoya - Japan's fourth largest city, chronically underrated, and home to some of the best regional food in the country.

From there it heads north into the Kiso Valley, where the historic Nakasendo trail cuts through cedar forest between Edo-period post towns that have barely changed in four hundred years.

Then north into the Japanese Alps to Takayama, a small mountain city with an old town so well preserved it feels like the rest of the modern world simply forgot to arrive. The week ends in Shirakawa-go - a UNESCO World Heritage valley of enormous thatched farmhouses sitting beneath mountain peaks that looks, in almost any season, almost too beautiful to be real.

No bullet trains. No queuing for photos at 6am. No feeling like you're following the same route as everyone else. Just the Japan that locals actually love, seen at the pace it deserves!