A Weekend Getaway to Nagiso with Ricoh GR1v and Kodak Gold 200

One day in last November, my mom was telling me a plan her classmates from college came up recently about traveling to some small towns in Japan. In spite of work-related issues being in the end of the year, I thought I could at least join them for a weekend and see one of the towns as I had never been any of them anyway. The town happened to be Nagiso, Nagano Prefecture. Having just had my Japanese visa renewed, I checked the tickets of that weekend and found out surprisingly that the price of return ticket from Shanghai to Osaka is even cheaper than that of from Shanghai to my home town. Tickets were booked and I hopped on the last flight of the day after Friday’s work.

It was going to be my first trip abroad since January 2020 when Covid was just starting to hit us. Back then, I had only been into photography for a couple of months and film photography was still a distant memory from childhood to me. A lot has changed since and one of the first questions came up this time was what camera should I bring with me? In fact, I do possess a more than capable digital camera to avoid the hassle of taking and shooting film abroad. But that was not fun, was it? I thought I should at least give a try in my first trip abroad after I got into film photography. Having already made my mind that I would only travel with a backpack, I decided to pair my most travel friendly film camera Ricoh GR1v with two rolls of Kodak Gold 200 film. My earlier concerns would soon prove to be unnecessary as customs officers from both Pudong Airport and Kansai Airport were more than willing to hand check my films during check-ins.

A quick Google Maps search soon made me realize the remoteness of the Town of Nagiso. The fastest way to get there from Kansai Airport by public transport includes four different train rides and takes around four hours which is double the duration of the flight from Shanghai to Osaka. Fortunately, whenever I had doubts during the trip, locals from railway staff to passengers were all super friendly and helpful to make sure I was able to reach my destination as planned.

Though the destination was not chosen by myself, there’s got to be something special about Nagiso right? A little research indicates that the area present-day Nagiso occupies grew in importance when the Nakasendo-one of the two routes connecting Edo (present-day Tokyo) to Kyoto during the Edo period-was established and ran through multiple post towns of it. In fact, there are 69 post towns in total along the Nakasendo. The 42nd, by the name of Tsumago-juku, which is also the last in Nagano Prefecture before the route enters into Gifu Prefecture lies in Nagiso. Local residents began to restore historical sites in Tsumago-juku during the 1960s and finally made it a Nationally Designated Architectural Preservation Site in 1976. My two-day plan was to walk around the post town of Tsumago-juku and explore its historical sites on Saturday before a short hike down to Magome-juku of Gifu Prefecture-the 43rd post town of Nakasendo-on Sunday.

It was a warm Saturday in December, every place from Kansai Airport to Tsumago-juku I passed by had harsh sunlight. I guess photographers must have different opinions about what qualifies as good weather, but the combination of Ricoh GR1v and Kodak Gold 200 handled most of the situations pretty well with enough details from both shadow and highlight area. Not only is the portability of the little Ricoh almost unmatched, it also takes photos that are sharper than many of the heavier SLR lenses.

Tsumago-juku lies around 3km south of the Nagiso train station. It had many of the aspects of what I had imagined about a small Japanese town, cedar trees planted around traditional houses with the flow of water being heard rather than seen. That said, I’m not sure if it could represent the typical Japanese town as I’ve never been to any other.

Though being capable of handling harsh situations, my favourite shots of the day were the ones taken after sunset.

Weather-wise, Sunday was a similar story. But being in the forest along the Nakasendo, the Japanese cedar would block most of the sunlight and make the situation less trickier. The few light beams that did come through made the scene rather interesting than annoying.

After about two hours or eight kilometres laster, I arrived at Magome-juku which has also been restored extensively. The hike along the Nakasendo was comfortably quiet making it the perfect getaway from my daily city routines. In few occasions when the silence was broken, it was always the birds or waterfalls. I was also amazed at how friendly people were along the hike. Almost every one of them, elder or younger, Japanese or not would greet me with ‘Konnichiwa’ when we ran into each other.

It was not until I started writing this post did I realize how much I needed this trip, both mental-wise and photography-wise. Prior to this, my photography projects often focus on documenting architecture which has been primarily a process of discovering buildings that appeal to me of a place I know well. It usually takes me more than a year to have some photos to show and write about. Not that there’s anything wrong with it but going to a different country, even for a weekend, inspires me to shoot objects so different that you can tell by just looking at them in Grid View on Lightroom. Perhaps it could help me write more frequently too? Hope you like the pictures.

You can find me on Instagram here. Thanks for reading.

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