Old Routes of Japan: Tracking down Japan off the beaten path from the eyes of a Japanese native

菊川宿(Kikugawa inn town) is an unofficial inn town between Kanaya and Nissaka inn towns. This part includes Kanaya pass, one of the highest peaks in Makinohara Plateau. This plateau covers major part of central Shizuoka prefecture, making itself one of the best and largest green tea producing areas in Japan. This is because after Tokugawa regime was over, new Tokugawa’s samurais, who lost their jobs, became green tea farmers for living and developed this area.  Let’s take a quick look at the overview. When you google 菊川(Kikugawa) in Shizuoka prefecture, you will find a couple of places. Be sure to know that Kikugawa unofficial inn town is NOT in Kikugawa city.  Before entering the inn town, there is a remarkable trail on its way. The restored cobbled road is on old Tokaido trail. And this us fairly long.  Total length of cobbled road is about 1km. Of this road, 30m length of the road is actually the original cobbled road from Edo period.  The cobbled road ends here, wh...

木野川渡し(Konogawa watashi) was the river crossing site on Oze(Kono) river of San’yodo/Saigoku Kaido highway. And it was the boarder of the country of Suo(周防:today’s southwestern Yamaguchi prefecture) and the country of Aki(安芸: today’s Hiroshima prefecture).  I use Kono River here, but the river is actually called Oze River as well. This is because the river has different names by Hiroshima and Yamaguchi locals. In Hiroshima, it has been called Kono, while it is called Oze in Yamaguchi.   This is one of places not featured on regular guidebook. It looks that, many people who know this place visit because of San’yodo/Saigoku Kaido trail.  We are sort of derailing off from the trail. Konogawa boat ride site had a honjin inn, in case of high water level of Kono river. Tsuya honjin’s gate has been preserved here.  This is my discovery from Google map/street views. Near Tsuya honjin inn, there is a good number of old houses as if this was late Edo or early Meiji period(mid to...

The picture is 松代(Matsushiro inn town) in Nagano city,  taken by me in September 2023.  The name “Hokkoku Kaido”(北国街道) refers to several routes which includes: 1) Eastern Nagano-western Niigata prefecture route. 2) Eastern Shiga - Fukui route. 3) Eastern Shiga - Fukui - Toyama - Niigata - Akita route. 4) Shiojiri - Nagano route.  According to my research, there is a significant overlap between  Hokkoku Kaido route 1) and Zenkoji Kaido route, which leads travelers to Zenkoji temple in downtown Nagano city.  Here in my blog, I am taking the route 1), therefore I named this series as “Hokkoku Kaido/Zenkoji Kaido series” in order to avoid confusion with other routes with “Hokkoku Kaido” name.  Starting point of the east:  Oiwake  (追分) - today’s Karuizawa town. Komoro (小諸) - Komoro city Tanaka (田中) and Unno (海野) - today’s Tomi city. These two inn towns were considered as one big inn town. Unno is certified as a Preservation District for Groups of Tradi...

小方(Ogata) unofficial inn town is about 20 minutes walk south of JR Kuba station.  According to a couple of guide maps, there is very little information.  I watched one of YouTube channels and read guide maps. And it looks like series of old houses start here. So I am guessing this is the beginning of Ogata unofficial inn town.  Basically going southwestward.  Turning right here.  Then turn left.  I am not sure if this structure of the road was built on purpose or not. Normally, if this was an official inn town, I would say yes.  In Ogata, there are very few signs that explain about San’yodo/Saigoku Kaido.  Off from the main route, there is Sainenji temple, built in 1615. This temple became one of hot spots of 1866 Second Choshu Expedition(also called Choshu War). Choshu army stationed here as their base camp, and a Tokugawa’s battleship fired a canon at this temple. You will still see the scar from the canon ball.  Kamei castle ruins is only ...