3 Mistakes Not To Make If You Visit Narai Juku

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Helen Foster is a Sydney-based author, journalist and content creator. She has traveled to Japan six times and is planning trip seven. Her articles on Japan have appeared in publications including Reader's Digest (Asia Pacific), RAC Horizons, Jetstar Magazine, the Japan National Tourism Organisation website and more. She is a digital publisher member of the Australian Society of Travel Writers.

Don’t Try and Do Too Much

Because I figured it would only take me 3-4 hours to see the sites of Narai Juku, I had it pencilled in my visit for a day when I was also visiting Matsumoto, less than an hour away. I quickly learned that while this looked easy on the map, the transport timings actually made it a complete PITA! Trying to make it work would have meant not seeing everything I wanted to in Matsumoto – or Narai.

Had I realised this before I booked all my hotels, I’d have stayed an extra night in Nagano to allow for the journey. So, factor that in when deciding how many nights you need in Nagano if you’re coming from here.

You can also visit Narai Juku from Nagoya. Again, the trains here are sporadic in their timing, so you’re best doing this as a whole day. See more details on the exact routes, and some suggested timings below.

Choose Your Time of Year Carefully

Once I realised I wouldn’t get to Narai Juku, I came up with a cunning plan. My friend Joanne, who writes the blog Travel With Joanne, was visiting the town on her Japan trip, so I asked her if she’d write a short article for me about her day. It was an excellent plan, we thought—until she arrived! Here’s what she says…

“I passed through the well-preserved postal town of Narai toward the end of March on my third day of walking the Nakasendo Trail. Being the end of winter, the track was covered in snow and ice. After an inelegant descent into Narai –I chose to slide down on my behind, rather than slip on the icy path – I strolled down towards the main street.

I passed a spring water fountain and the famous Narai notice board with its ancient, weathered wooden decrees. The town seemed eerily quiet.

Too early in the season for tourists, only a few walkers wandered down the street between the shuttered shops. Most shops were closed, and road maintenance workers diverted us away from the main street.

I followed a path along the Narai River, which runs parallel to the main street, to the long wooden Kiso Ohashi bridge. This, too, was cordoned off, I suspect because of the slippery, icy surface. Looking back at the photos, the historic town of Narai looks abandoned and bleak, very different from the vibrant town it becomes in the spring or when the autumn colours begin to show.’

So, unless you’re very sure-footed or really want to see the town when it’s quiet, you might want to save visiting for the warmer months to ensure that everything you want to see is open.

As you can also see from Joanne’s experience (and all the pictures she kindly took for me), it’s (literally) freezing in winter. The average high temperature in December is 3 degrees; in January, it’s zero; and in February, it’s 1 degree—and that’s the high. It can get a lot colder than that, which means snow.

If you do go at this time of year, make sure you’re dressed for the weather. If you’re driving make sure you’re prepared for snowy roads (see what can happen if you’re not in our guide to the biggest mistakes you can make in Japan).

And Choose Your Day

While many sights in Narai Juku are open daily, some shops, restaurants and museums take a few days off each week. For example, the Narakawa History and Folklore Museum is only open at weekends (from 10-4pm), and quite a few shops and restaurants close early in the week.

If you’re coming to Narai Juku on a Monday, Tuesday, or Wednesday, check what you want to see that will be open.

Also, check daily opening hours—the toji soba noodle shop I mention below is only open from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m., the Nakamura-tei museum closes at 3.30 p.m., and pretty much the whole place will be putting up the shutters by 5 p.m. Don’t arrive here too late in the day.

So, now that you know what not to do if you visit Narai Juku, what should you do while you’re there?

What to See in Narai Juku

Here’s what to ensure you don’t miss.

The Main Street

The main sight in Narai Juku is the one km-long curved lane of wooden storefronts with beautiful trees in the distance. During the day, this lane is lined with restaurants, including many selling the area’s famous soba dishes, guesthouses echoing the town’s past as a place to rest on the journey, and small shops selling handmade souvenirs.

Don’t miss the fantastic woodblock prints and postcards at 藤屋土産物店, next to the Oyaki Tezukara dumpling shop. This is run by the wife of a local artist named Koji Nakanishi. He has passed on, but she still sells prints of his designs, and they’d make beautiful—lightweight—reminders of your visit.

Taste Some Soba

Rice doesn’t grow well in this region, but buckwheat does, and for that reason, soba is a mainstay of the cuisine in and around the Nagano area. You’ll find many soba restaurants on the Narai Juku main street. The one I had on my list was そば処山なか, as they sell an interesting soba dish called toji soba.

In this regional speciality, cold soba is served alongside a bowl of hot soup with vegetables and sometimes meat or chicken. You’re given a woven wooden spoon with holes in it, and you place the noodles in this then swish them around in the soup shabu-shabu style to heat them up.

It’s much better than cold soba in icy winter conditions.

If you can’t get in そば処山なか take a look at 徳利屋, a few doors north of the Tourist Information Centre. This is set in an elegant old house that still has its original interior.

The Long Bridge and Noticeboard

The Kiso Ohashi Bridge is one of the longest wooden bridges in Japan. Although it might look like it was built around the same time as the rest of the town, it’s actually less than 40 years old!

The noticeboard was how decrees from the ruling classes were communicated to those taking the road between Kyoto and Tokyo. The information was carved into the wooden tablets you can still see there today.

Chosen-ji Temple

The thing I wanted to see most, though, was the Chosen-ji temple, with its famous painting of a dragon.

This was painted 130 years ago, and at one point, if you clapped your hands underneath it, the sound echoed, giving the painting the nickname of the roaring dragon. Shifts in the building mean that no longer happens but do keep an ear out for the sound of miaowing; the temple has a ragdoll cat called Rag who wanders around greeting the visitors.

It seems I don’t have much luck with dragon paintings—I also missed the one in nearby Obuse!

Another notable thing about Chosen-ji is the tea jars. Back in the day, these were among the cargo carried along the Nakasendo route. The tea was picked and packed in Uji, then carried to Edo (Tokyo) for the shogun. Chosenji was where the party rested en route, and some tea jars are still here.

Image: JNTO picture library by Hokuriku-Shinetsu

There are some other interesting shrines you can wander into here, including the scarlet Shizume-jinga, the tiny Yakushinyorai and the Nihyaku Jizoson, which has 200 stone jizo statues, each slightly different. They’re worn and faded, but you can still spend a little time spotting their differences.

This isn’t the most comprehensive post I could write on Narai Juku – I will get back there on a future trip and add some more personal recommendations, but, I figured that it still had its place as a ‘what not to do if you’re visiting Narai Juku’ article – especially, as both Joanne and I are pretty experienced travelers so, if we managed to come a cropper (literally in Joanne’s case) while planning our visit, it’s good to tell you about it.

And, now you’re forewarned, here’s how to reach this pretty town.

How to Get to Narai Juku

From Nagano

If you get the train times right, you’ll be able to get from Nagano to Narai Juku in 2 hours and 18 minutes – with just one train change at Shiojiri.

What makes things tricky is that the trains between Nagano and Shiojiri, and Shiojiri and Narai don’t always connect smoothly. This means there are only really two viable train options from Nagano to Narai Juku a day. The first leaves at 6.31 am and gets you into Narai Juku at 8.41 am, giving you heaps of time to explore.

If you’re not an early riser, the next train with an easy connection doesn’t leave Nagano until noon. This is a little faster, so you’ll arrive at Narai Juku at 1.30 pm.

If that all sounds a bit difficult, or if, like me, you want to see both Matsumoto and Narai Juku, there is a tour that takes in both and leaves from Nagano. See more about it here.

From Matsumoto

Getting to Narai from Matsumoto is relatively easy. A direct train on the Shinonoi Line runs every two hours and takes only 50 minutes.

From Nagoya

The journey from Nagoya to Narai Juku also requires changing trains (exactly where depends on the time you travel). However, leave at 7.00 am, and you will be in Narai by 9.25 am. Other services leaving at 9 am and 11 am can also work.

A Note About Getting Back

For all of the destinations above, pay close attention to the times of the trains back—there’s a train leaving Narai for Shiojiri at 1.25 pm, but after this, there is a long gap until the next one at 4.55 p.m. There’s also a bit of a gap around lunchtime heading back to Nagoya and Matsumoto – that was the main reason why I found scheduling the two on one day so hard.

From Tokyo

If you can’t spare the time to stay around the Central Japan region, it’s possible to take a day trip to Narai Juku from Tokyo. The Azusa train leaves Shinjuku Station at 8 am and will get you to Narai Juku, via Shiojiri, for 11.12 am. There are then trains back leaving at 3.45 pm, 4.45 pm – or one at 7.24 pm. The return journey will cost around 15,000 yen.

I have used the Navitime app to work out all the journeys, which is, in my opinion, the best app for forward-planning your Japan trip (see my other suggested apps here).

You can also use Navitime via their website if you need to see full timetables to plan your day. While this is all correct on the day I write this, timetables can change, so, check the latest schedules before setting off. Also note that some of the trains on these routes require reserved seats, so make sure you know if you need to book your seat in advance.

So, that’s what you need to know if you plan to take a day trip to Narai Juku on your Japan trip. If you use this to plan your journey, please share pictures over at my Japan-planning Facebook group so I can live vicariously through you until I finally get there.