Tsumago to Nagiso bus + TIPS to get on before the crowd! (Nagoya day trip to Nakasendo)

Kon’nichiwa!

So after you’ve finished walking in Tsumago along the Nakasendo samurai trail, there’s a bus that you can take to get from Tsumago to Nagiso Station. It’s pretty straightforward. When you’re walking through the historic area of Tsumago, there is even a sign that tells you which way the bus stop is.

You will want to plan ahead though, as the bus timings are not the most frequent.

It’s about a 10 minute bus ride from Tsumago to Nagiso Station. The bus fare is 300 yen in cash in exact change. You will pay this as you get off the bus. I’ll show you below how to confirm the current cost.

It is also possible to continue walking the Nakasendo Trail from Tsumago to Nagiso, which would be around an hour walk.

Once you’re at Nagiso, you can take a train back to Nagoya. You have a choice between the faster more expensive limited express train or the slower but cheaper regular train. You can buy train tickets when you arrive at the train station.

Below I’ll show you what it looks like to take the bus from Tsumago to Nagiso.

 

There are affiliate links included on this blog. I may earn a commission.

 

 

How to plan your route for Tsumago and Nagiso

So I think the easiest way to plan out your day is to use google maps! I found it to work out well for me. It is literally the only thing I used to plan out my route to make it back to Nagoya from Tsumago.

You’ll want to do a search for Tsumago-juku to wherever your final destination is to confirm that going through Nagiso will indeed be the best route for you at the time you expect to be in Tsumago. (Depending on your timing, it may be suggested that you go through Nakatsugawa Station instead of Nagiso Station to catch a train, in which case it will tell you to take the bus from Tsumago to Nakatsugawa.)

I felt comfortable in trusting google maps for the train timings on this route. I did for the bus timings too, but maybe if I was going to be a little doubtful, I would check a secondary source for the bus timings, since this is a rural bus route.

To confirm Tsumago bus timings, you can go to Kitaena bus company website. Then you can look under the “Sakashita Line” section’s “timetable” to see the bus schedule for “Sakashita Line (Nakatsugawa Station – Sakashita Station – Tsumago – Minami Kiso Station)” weekdays or holidays/weekends. If the page doesn’t auto translate for you, look for your device settings to translate the whole page.

The bus schedule is a pdf in Japanese. In the top box, you can do a ctrl+F or “find in page” on your device for Tsumago in Japanese (妻籠), which is towards the bottom and the only line that has 2 timings (arrival to bus stop and departure from bus stop). The last line is Nagiso-eki (南木曽駅) for Nagiso Station. The top box is the one you’ll look at for the bus schedule for Tsumago to Nagiso. The bottom box is in the opposite direction (Nagiso to Tsumago), so the first line is Nagiso Station and a few lines below that is Tsumago.

 

👆 Google maps can make planning the different sections of Tsumago to Nagiso to Nagoya easy! It will give you different options, and you can decide which you want to do. Make the starting point Tsumago-juku and the destination Nagoya Station, and it will put together a route for you to follow, combining the bus and train, based on the bus schedule and train schedule. Do this to check that going through Nagiso is indeed the best route. It will also give you the estimated cost of tickets. (map)

 

👆 You can also look up Tsumago to Nagiso individually to see the bus timings. You can further tap “also at” to get more details. Your phone (google maps map) will give you more details compared to the desktop version.

 

Arrive in Tsumago!

So walking from Magome, you’ll follow the signs to Tsumago and you will naturally end up walking through Tsumago!

 

👆 Walking in Tsumago.

 

👆 Walking the historic streets of Tsumago, there is a sign for the bus stop.

 

👆 If you still have plenty of time before the bus, you can stop at the rest house and wait.

 

👆 You can walk 3.5 km (2.2 miles) from Tsumago to Nagiso Station.

 

Tsumago bus stop

Walking the Nakasendo Trail through Tsumago, there is a sign that will point you to the bus stop. On google maps, there’s a bus icon called Tsumago (map).

So it’s pretty easy to find the bus stop in Tsumago, and once there, there’s a sign for the bus that goes to Nagiso Station. This is a rural area so bus times and train timings are more limited, so you will want to plan it out ahead of time to determine which bus you want to be on to be able to catch the train you want to get on. There are cheaper trains and faster more expensive trains. I used google maps for this and it worked out.

 

👆 So once you are ready to go to the Tsumago bus stop, you can just follow the signs.

 

👆 Walking down an alley to get to the bus.

 

👆 This is the Tsumago bus stop. It is right in front of a bathroom.

 

👆 The Tsumago bus stop is right next to a taxi stand. (That’s what the sign on the very right says.)

 

👆 You’ll know it’s the Tsumago bus stop that goes to Nasiso Station because it says so. There’s also a bus stop that goes to Magome on the other side.

 

The less crowded Tsumagobashi bus stop

So once I got to the Tsumago bus stop, I saw there was a sign that indicated it’s possible that not everyone will be able to get on the bus.

Well, if I was not able to get on the bus, that would be very unfortunate to have to wait for another bus, because at that point I might not make the train connection I want to. So I consulted google maps and found that I could get on the bus from just a little bit up the road, since the Tsumago bus stop was not the first stop on the route. It was a few minutes walk away, and I thought that was worth it to guarantee myself a spot on the bus.

The name of this bus stop is Tsumagobashi (map). From the Tsumago bus stop, once you get out onto the main road, you head left. You walk for 5 minutes or less until just before the bridge. It’s on the left side of the road as you are walking away from the main Tsumago bus stop. If you cross the bridge you have gone too far.

There’s a Tsumagobashi bus stop sign to indicate it’s the bus stop. There’s a little shelter waiting area. But I was a little afraid the bus driver would pass me by if he didn’t see anyone, so I made sure to wait outside.

 

👆 This sign was posted at the Tsumago bus stop. It says that because of the increasing number of bus riders on the Hogami Line and Magome Line, not all passengers may be able to board. If you can’t take a bus, please use the next bus. If you’d like to arrive at Nagiso Station in time for a train departure, it’s recommended to take a taxi. There’s a taxi stand right next to the bus stop, and the taxi fare from Tsumago to Nagiso Station is around 1800 yen (US$12).

 

👆 After playing around with google maps, I determined that I could walk to the bus stop before the Tsumago bus stop, so I started walking.

 

👆 This is the Tsumagobashi bus stop where there is a shelter. It’s in a little parking lot area, on the opposite side of the road that you’d expect it to be on. (Based on the direction the bus will be going.)

 

👆 Look for the Tsumagobashi bus stop sign.

 

👆 That road is the direction I walked from.

 

👆 Facing the bus stop shelter.

 

👆 The bus is coming from across the bridge, and will turn into the parking area.

 

👆 It’s a regular local bus.

 

Bus to Nagiso Station

The bus fare is 300 yen (US$2) in cash. You’ll pay for this in cash with exact change as you are getting off the bus. So you won’t do anything regarding the bus fare when you are getting on the bus.

When I took the bus to Nagiso, they were letting off people at the front and the back. I got off at the back of the bus where there was someone who was holding a box for you to put the bus fare in. If you don’t have exact change, you’ll want to get off at the front of the bus where there is a coin exchange machine which accepts 500 yen coins and 1000 yen bills.

Confirm the current bus fare. If your device does not auto-translate, look for your device setting to translate the page. Then, look under the “Sakashita Line” section, where there is “Sakashita Line (Nakatsugawa Station – Sakashita Station – Tsumago Station – Nagiso Station)” which leads to a pdf. This is in Japanese, so use ctrl+F or “find in page” on your device to search for Tsumago (妻籠) and Nagiso Station (南木曽駅) to look for the bus fare for this route.

 

👆 Once the bus got to the Tsumago bus stop and tons of people started getting on the bus, I was feeling pretty proud of myself! 🤣 It turned into a packed bus with lots of people standing. I was restfully sitting. 🧘 And more importantly, there was no stress that I was going to be stopped from getting on the bus!

 

👆 There was someone outside the bus to collect the bus fare in a box.

 

👆 The bus I just got off at Nagiso Station.

 

👆 How to ride the local Tsumago bus.

 

Nagiso Station

Once at Nagiso Station, you can buy a train ticket. Cash only. If you are taking the JR Shinano limited express train, then read the sign so you can know which section is the non-reserved seats.

There are times when the ticket booth isn’t open, and if you arrive to find it closed, you will just get on the train and pay when you have the opportunity. If you take the local train, that will likely be when you get off at your final destination. If you get on the limited express train, you might see a staff person walk by, and you can pay for your ticket then.

 

👆 You’ll be dropped off pretty much right at Nagiso Station.

 

👆 Right inside the train station, you’ll buy train tickets at the ticket booth.

 

👆 The ticket booth at Nagiso Station is open from 7:50am to 4:05pm, and it closes a couple of times during the day.

 

Train from Nagiso

So with a ticket in your hand, you can now proceed to the platform to wait for the train!

 

👆 Nagiso Station to Kiso-fukushima, to Nagano, and to Nagoya. Oh, it says Nagoya! This is the platform I need to be on since I’m going to Nagoya! So down the stairs I went. Except, this was the WRONG platform!! (At least for the JR Shinano train to Nagoya I was getting on.) The platform on the other side also said Nagoya!! (This is rare for both sides to go in the same direction.) I only realized this when I saw that the train that was arriving was going to the other platform. 😱 At that point, I ran up the stairs and then down the stairs to the other side to get to the correct platform. People were still in the process of getting off the train, so I made it onto the train no problem. But that would have been a very unfortunate mistake if I would have missed that train!

 

👆 Also to Nagoya!! This was the correct platform. I guess you know because the JR Shinano to Nagoya also goes towards Nakatsugawa? I really don’t know how you are supposed to know this. So I would ask at the ticket booth what platform your train is on when you buy your ticket. I didn’t see any signs. (They could have been there and I just wasn’t paying attention.)

 

👆 The JR Shinano limited express train from Nagiso to Nagoya.

 

Nakasendo Trail itinerary

For general planning, here’s the way to think of doing the Nakasendo Trail:

• Nagoya to Magome
  • Nagoya to Nakatsugawa train
  • Nakatsugawa to Magome bus
• Hiking the Nakasendo Trail from Magome to Tsumago
• Tsumago to Nagoya
  • Tsumago to Nagiso bus
  • Nagiso to Nagoya train

 

 

JAPAN TRAVEL > NAKASENDO TRAIL ITINERARY