Full-day tour from Nagoya: Inuyama Castle & Tsumago-juku
Last updated: August 26, 2026
Climb Japan's oldest surviving castle keep at Inuyama Castle, then walk the Edo-era post towns of Magome-juku and Tsumago-juku — one full day from Nagoya. The National Treasure keep still carries its original 16th-century woodwork on a bluff above the Kiso River, and the same river reappears at Ena Gorge, a mirror-still dam lake beneath strangely sculpted cliffs. The afternoon belongs to the old Nakasendo highway: Magome's stone-paved slope of soba shops and centuries-old storehouses, then Tsumago, Japan's first designated preservation district, where the street scene has barely moved since samurai walked it. The coach loops back to Nagoya in the evening.
Itinerary
Departure
- Start point: MINISTOP behind BIC CAMERA (Nagoya Station West Exit)
- Stop at: Inuyama Castle
- Stop at: Ena Gorge
- Stop at: Magome-juku
- Stop at: Tsumago-juku
- End point: MINISTOP behind BIC CAMERA (Nagoya Station West Exit)
Frequently Asked Questions
It is one of only a handful of castles in Japan designated a National Treasure, and its keep is the country's oldest survivor — never burned, never rebuilt. Inside, the steep original stairs and 16th-century timbers lead up to a top-floor balcony with a sweeping view over the Kiso River.
Two neighboring post towns on the Nakasendo, the inland Edo-period highway between Kyoto and Edo. Magome — awarded a Michelin Green Guide star — climbs a stone-paved slope lined with soba shops and old merchant houses, with about 90 minutes to wander it freely; Tsumago was Japan's first Important Preservation District for traditional buildings, kept scrupulously free of modern intrusions.
A stretch of the Kiso River stilled into a lake by the Oi Dam, walled with rock formations weathered into odd shapes — Umbrella Rock the most famous — and colored differently by every season, from spring cherries to autumn reds.
Around ten hours, meeting in the morning at the Ministop convenience store on Tsubakicho, just behind Bic Camera at Nagoya Station's west exit, and returning to the same spot in the evening — the four stops sit along one arc through Aichi, Gifu and the Kiso Valley in Nagano.