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• Day 45 – Tono sightseeing
• Weather: hot
• Accommodation: Tono Youth Hostel, ¥3,400

I slept in and had a relaxing morning before deciding it was time to go and explore this wonderful area. The main recommended sight was the Furusato village with a collection of traditional thatched-roof farmhouse buildings, so I went there first. It was a scorcher of a day!

After being warned by many people here about bears, I was a bit anxious when Komoot took me off-road for the 5km to get to the Furusato village. Of course there was a road I could’ve taken, but to be honest, it was a stunning route through the forest and I never would’ve found it otherwise.

The following photos were all taken at the Tono Furusato Village which reminded me a lot of the Hida folk village in Takayama. Except here, the houses are called ‘magariya‘ which means bent houses as they were L-shaped. These houses were built to house not only people but horses which were almost considered more important than people and were given the best room, the bottom of the ‘L’ which had the most sunlight.

Many of the houses had wood fires burning inside so it felt like I was stepping back in time when I walked into each house. I left smelling like smoke and I absolutely loved it there.

I loved Tono and would highly recommend this area for a weekend visit. It’s not so hard to access either considering there’s a local train station here and a shinkansen bullet line nearby.