There's not a whole lot to do other than soaking in the atmosphere of the old village, but we kept ourselves entertained. Diversions include a sake brewery, which is only identified by that scary symbol hanging over Somchai's head. Given the complete silence and lack of signage, we were doubtful a real business was bustling behind the doors, but as we slid open the door and tentatively poked our heads in, we were surprised to see a man standing behind a register ready to take our order. Since we were without a doubt the only visitors to the town that day, I'm not sure if he was tipped off about our presence, or whether he stands there day in and day out waiting for someone to pop in, but either way, we struggled through the language barrier and emerged with a couple of bottles of locally brewed sake. There's also the very pretty Kisu River with some ancient bridges, and Somchai was in his element as the town had five old wells that used to provide water for the Kyoto to Edo traffic, so he was able to risk sickness or worse five different times in one day! I really liked it here, and would plan on spending the day in the valley, walking between towns along the river on our next visit.

32. Narai

On the way back we stopped at the tiny town of Narai, which for some reason seems to be completely off the tourist radar screens. It's one of several towns in the picturesque Kisu River Valley. These towns used to be resting stops on the main road between Kyoto and Tokyo, so for centuries the nobles of Kyoto would make annual trips along the road to pay respects to the shogun based in Tokyo (I should point out now that Tokyo was actually called Edo for most of its history). So these towns thrived off of selling provisions and accomodation to the traveling nobles and their retinue. Once more direct routes were established, these towns sank into oblivion, and are now time capsules of old Japan. Apparently a couple of these towns have gone the tourism kitsch way of Kurashiki, but we only went to Narai and there was nary a tourist or souvenir stand in sight. In fact, I don't think we saw any people generally, unless we poked our heads into one of the buildings we were walking by, hoping it was a shop instead of someone's house. By the way, I'm in one of the photos above but my shirt blends perfectly with the surroundings, so my camoflauge getup may make me hard to spot.