Yamanobe-no-michi

This is a walk where nothing dramatic happens for long stretches, and that is the point. The path keeps to the line where the hills meet the rice fields of the Nara basin, so for most of the day you have slopes of mikan orchards on your left and a wide view west to Mount Nijo on your right. It is often called Japan's oldest road. The Kojiki places Emperor Sujin's tomb on it, and his keyhole-shaped mound, with Emperor Keiko's a little further south, is one of the things you walk around.

The usual route is Tenri Station to Sakurai Station, about 16 km. Tenri's tourist association puts the walking time at 4 hours 50 minutes, and the prefecture gives a height difference of only about 75 m, but with stops it is a full day. Start in the north. Isonokami Shrine, with its cockerels wandering under the cedars, is about 30 minutes from Tenri Station. South of it the path narrows between farm walls and through hamlets, past small honour-system stalls selling whatever is in season: put the coins in the box.

Chogaku-ji is roughly halfway and the best place for a break. Next to it the Tenri City Trail Center has toilets, showers, a restaurant and free Nordic pole loans (8:30 to 17:00, closed on the first Monday). Just west, the Kurozuka Kofun exhibition hall is free and shows replicas of the 33 bronze mirrors dug out of the mound in 1998 (closed Mondays). Further south, Hibara Shrine has no main hall, only a triple torii facing Mount Miwa, and the field in front of it looks west over the basin. The stone carved "Yamanobe no Michi" stands just beside the shrine. The last stretch ends at Omiwa Shrine, which also worships the mountain itself rather than a building.

Downsides: the signposts are in Japanese, English, Korean and Chinese but miss the odd turn in the hamlets, some sections are narrow unpaved farm paths, and between the hamlets there is nowhere to buy food. The prefecture recommends carrying its PDF route map rather than trusting a phone app. The JR Sakurai Line runs parallel below the path, so Yanagimoto, Makimuku and Miwa stations are all exits if your legs give out.