Here we are at the Nakanorisan Brewing Company on an auspicious day. We started with a much needed drink of this year’s premier sake. Here’s to our health! Today began the new brewing season and local media were there with photographers and journalists. Our hiking mate Ted (wearing the black cap) was interviewed and his favorable analysis was printed in the local newspaper the next day.

To mark the new sake brewing season a sugidama (cedar ball) is hung above the entrance of the brewery. The cedar ball is made by plucking hundreds of sprigs of soft green cedar sprigs and forming them into a ball. Gradually the sugidama will turn brown at the same rate that the sake matures. Drinking sake is filled with tradition and strict etiquette.

The new sugidama is greeted with great joy.

Mitch helped move the old cedar ball.

The Momosuke Bridge is Japan’s longest wooden suspension bridge.

This is the Yamamura Daikan Yashiki Museum. It was the residence of the Yamamura family which governed the Kiso Valley for 280 years on behalf of the Edo Shogunate.The Magistrate’s house is filled with historic documents, family artifacts, guest rooms, and a shrine.

This is the shrine in the house honoring Omashasama, a guardian god of Kiso who was seen as a fox. A close-up of the family’s mummified pet fox in the shrine cabinet is seen below.

Another fox shrine in the Magistrate’s garden next to the house.

This is Fukushima Sekisyo checkpoint. Administering the checkpoint was one of the Magistrate’s principal duties. All travelers using the Nakasendo trail during the Edo period had to present travel permits or written permission from the shogunate in order pass through it.