2026-07-05 A Stroll Through the Tranquil Ancient Town of the Edo Period: Narai-juku#

In our original itinerary, Kami-Suwa and Shimo-Suwa were supposed to take two days to visit, but surprisingly, we smoothly finished them in one day. This gave us a free day in Matsumoto on July 5th. After repeated searching, we found a highly worthwhile place to visit: Narai-juku. Yes, not Nara, but ‘Narai-juku’.

During the Edo period (1603–1867), the Tokugawa shogunate built five major routes connecting Edo (now Tokyo) and Kyoto. One of these, winding through the inland mountains, is the famous Nakasendo. Narai-juku is located right in the middle of the Nakasendo and served as the most important and prosperous rest station for travelers before crossing the treacherous ‘Torii Pass’. Back then, there was a continuous stream of travelers, merchants, and samurai. Countless inns, teahouses, and shops opened in the town, and its prosperity was praised by later generations as ‘Narai of a Thousand Buildings’ (Narai Senken).

Narai-juku boasts one of the longest continuous historical streets in Japan (about 1 kilometer). Strolling along the street lined with traditional ‘Senbon-goshi’ (thousand-slat lattice) wooden buildings on both sides feels like traveling straight back to the Edo period.

Compared to most tourist commercial streets in Japan (like the Karuizawa Ginza Dori we also visited on this trip), it lacks the over-packaged commercial vibe, retaining a very pure and tranquil ancient town atmosphere.

In this trip to Narai-juku, there were actually quite a few famous attractions we didn’t get to visit: the iconic Kiso Ohashi (Kiso Great Bridge) happened to be under maintenance, and the trail to the Shizume Shrine and the Two Hundred Jizo was a bit too rugged for my wife.

However, to us, this wasn’t an issue at all. On the contrary, without the pressure of having to ‘check-in’ at landmarks, we were able to slow down our pace and purely enjoy the rustic charm, tranquility, and cleanliness here.

Speaking of tranquility, there were actually quite a few tourists on the street, but what’s rare is that everyone tacitly lowered their volume. Strolling through it only felt leisurely, not noisy at all.