Weegiewife here,

Just back from Japan, and just wanted to add a bit more feedback on the thread - for raw information, LapLap's post is excellent. Magome itself is on a very steep incline, and does have a bit of a hyperly preserved feel to it. It is however, a nice quiet little place to stay, and once the day trippers disappear, it makes for a very restful place to stay. I stayed there on a Friday night at the Magomechaya inn. www.magomechaya.com = despite their protestations about not speaking English, they had plenty of written information and advice about staying in a minshuku if it is not something you have done before. I was pleased with my stay and meals there. You'll leave the table bursting and happy from your tasty delights with the meals they provide. If you stay in either town, pick a place that includes meals as there are few dining options outside of day trippers hours.

The tourist office takkyubin service, where they will forward your bags from Magome to Tsumago, only operates on weekends in the off season, but is a very good service and economical at 500 yen a bag. The tourist information centers are located at approximately the mid point in each town. I had hemmed and hawed about doing the hike, as I am a not very athletic and chunky (read fat) middle aged woman with bad knees and inappropriate shoes (sport loafers rather than hiking boots). But even despite that, I decided to do the hike.

I am SO glad I did - as said previously, in the Magome to Tsumago direction, the path has quite an incline for the first quarter to third of the way, and then is largely downhill. The path takes you through towns, along streams, past small temples, and in bits takes you through bamboo and pine forests and past waterfalls. As there was a lot of autumn harvesting going on, there were many older village women either out tilling garden plots, or setting out their produce to dry. The path is very well signposted, in English as well as Japanese, and even if you get a bit waylaid by taking a wrong turning and end up on the road, before long, the road crosses back with the path and you can get right back onto it. I ran into couples enjoying the walk en route, and even with my extremely limited Japanese, I was able to ask them where we were in terms of progress. A tip for others with limited Japanese - you can chart your progress by ticking off the 'rest areas' with lavatories that you pass. I recommend the hike highly to anyone with even a glimmer of interest in doing it. The area does get a lot of tourist traffic, but it is a nice break away from city crowds. My main recommendation would be to follow the links in LapLap's thread to the Tourist boards for the most current bus information as they are far and few in between.

I didn't run into any bears either!

weegiewife