[Magome-juku, Japan] Good kaiseki lunch at Haginoya 萩乃屋

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We left Nagaragawa Seiyru Hotel after the elaborate breakfast, and headed to Kiso Valley for the day. The day turned out to be one of the highlights of the entire trip for me.

Kiso Valley spans Nagano prefecture from the upper section of the Kiso River and Gifu prefecture to the lower section. During the Edo period hundreds of years ago, the Nakasendo is one of the two trade routes that connected Edo, now Tokyo, and Kyoto, that goes through the valley, with 69 post towns for weary travelers to rest for the evening. A lot of these post towns fell into disrepair over the years after the Nakasendo became irrelevant with modern transportation. We are going to three today that are lovingly preserved- Magume-juku, Tsumago-juku and Narai-juku.

First, lunch at Haginoya, in Magome-juku. In the Michelin Guide Aichi, Gifu, and Mie 2019 Special Edition, Haginoya got recognized for a bib. That’s not the reason that I came but the food was good. The chef came from a chef family. These were the meal sets that were reserved:

萩乃屋ランチ（Haginoya lunch）
ミニ会席 (mini kaiseki)
会席料理 (kaiseki)

The pictures below came from all three of the sets.

First, the appetizer for my kaiseki, a jelly concoction that was exquisitely laid on a lily pad.

Veggie course.

Chilled, thick dashi soup, perfect for the summer.

Chilled soba for the summer.

Shiso flower on top of Hokkaido uni, cucumber slices and flounder sashimi. Its delicious.

Herring, eggplant, Japanese spinach, and tofu.

Ayu. The ayu here was seasoned and grilled to perfection, better than the specialist in Gifu the night before.

Sweet plum, hinamame (sp) bean, shaved radish, spanish flounder and egg.

Nameko mushroom, green onion rice porridge. Simple and delicious.

Refreshing homemade sorbet. It was tart, sweet, and light.

The meal was creative, delicious and well executed. The dishes were exquisitely plated on beautiful tableware. The restaurant was in a big, traditional house. All the tables were in private / semi-private rooms. Recommended.

Haginoya 萩乃屋
4572 Magome, Nakatsugawa, Gifu 508-0502, Japan

日本料理 萩乃屋｜岐阜県中津川市の馬籠宿で会席料理が味わえるお店

Magome-juku is a stunning, very well-preserved post-town on a very steep hillside. There were few tourists that day. Its like going back in time. Probably the most beautiful little town on the trip, save maybe Shirakawa, which was super touristy.

[BierMonk]

Wow.
My lust to travel in Japan just doubled.
Thank you for the Photos, beautiful.

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We went there on a day where there weren’t a lot of tourists, especially Tsumago-juku and Narai-juku. In fact, we got the entire Narai-juku to pretty much ourselves. The three post towns were all beautiful, in different ways.

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Onto Tsumago-juku, which can be hiked from Magome-juku. Tsumago-juku is a smaller town and has much fewer tourist infrastructure and souvenir shops. It is a bit older and more rustic.

It was so hot that day in the afternoon that shops used grass mats to block the sun out.

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And our last stop of the day before making the drive to Nagano- Narai-juku. I think there’s only one other group of tourists in the entire town. Narai-juku was exceptionally well restored and preserved, and beautiful. Each of the post town today had its own unique style.

International tourists typically flock to the over-touristed Tokyo, Osaka and Kyoto. But in my opinion there’s so much more that one can get out of a trip by going to the rest of the country- even more beautiful, less crowded, and cheaper.

We went to three of the sixty-nine post towns on the Nakasendo today.

The drive to from Narai-juku to Nagano at dusk was beautiful:

Once we settled into the hotel, we grabbed hearty bowls of miso ramen from a miso specialist near the Nagano JR station- らぁめん みそ家 Ramen Misoya. Both spicy and non-spicy. Order at the machine by the door.