Nakasendo Way hikers can enjoy rural Japan as it was centuries ago — but air-conditioned

MAGOME, Japan - For two centuries the Nakasendo Way was a major pedestrian route that connected a string of villages providing lodging and sustenance for the shoguns, retainers and daimyo, or feudal lords, traveling between Tokyo and Kyoto.

The trail and its villages were largely abandoned in the late 1800s as the power of the shoguns faded and as travelers between the two capitals began making the trek by train or automobile.

But Tsugamo and several other villages along the route in the late 1960s began campaigns of rediscovery. Modern buildings were removed, and those left from the Edo period (1600-1868) were restored or reconstructed. Streets were repaved with period stone and closed to automobile traffic.

The Nakasendo, or central mountain route, once again began offering