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

 I wonder how many of my readers thought how long this guy’s lecture will continue.  As a visual learner, I would prefer to get the basic quickly, then as I practice, I want to go in depth.  One of the most popular trails of Kaidos is probably Tokaido. Some might say Nakasendo is arguably the best. But historically Tokaido has been a top traffic route, probably “the busiest” one. It is hard to figure out data of Edo period. One research shows that 40,000-260,000 people used parts of Tokaido, while  most parts of Nakasendo hardly reached more than 50,000 travelers. (Resource: “Main routes traffic amount n Edo period” by Ryoichi Tsuchida. 1982. 土田良一著「江戸時代における街道交通量」歴史地理学通号117  歴史地理学会編　1982年6月発行   http://hist-geo.jp/img/archive/117_028.pdf ) Today, “Tokaido” Shinkansen is often referred to as “The Aorta of Japan.  The Tokaido route consists of 53 stations(inn towns), from Edo(Tokyo) to Kyoto. Some would add 4 more stations(inn towns between Kyoto and Osaka...

 What do we expect to see on Kaidos and in inn towns?  I did mentioned a bit on my second blog.  https://off-the-beaten-paths-japan.blogspot.com/2025/01/introducing-old-highway-networkkaido.html?m=1 Let me explain more about these.  An inn town had 高札場(Kosatsuba: the information board), 本陣(Honjin: an officially-appointed inn, or today’s super-luxury hotel), 脇本陣(a secondary inn, or backup inn of Honjin), 旅籠(Hatago: equivalent to today’s business hotel), 木賃宿(equivalent to hostel or capsule hotel), 問屋場(Toiyaba: an administrative office which includes accommodation arrangements, postal service, cargo and logistic terminal, personnel service for local lords’ procession events). There are other establishments like restaurants, clinics, pine-tree-lined boulevard, forked roads etc. In some of important inn towns, there were 関所(sekisho: a checkpoint).  A typical scenery of today’s inn town is like this, on the following picture. (Nakasendo Nakatsugawa inn town. Photos ta...

When I googled “Kaido Japan”, I hit Kaido as the Edo Five Routes. Then “Nikko Kaido” came after. Then, the third one I hit was Shimanami Kaido.  Oops…I forgot to mention that, there are other cases that Kaido does not mean historical routes that have been used for centuries.  Shimanami Kaido(しまなみ海道) is a new route that is connecting between Onomichi city of Hiroshima prefecture and Imabari city of Ehime prefecture, over bridges, known for scenic cycling and driving. And the Chinese characters of Kaido in this case is slightly different. 海道(kaido, which I use as “kaido”) means “sea route”. Historically, 海道 as sea route exists. Eventually I am going to touch…probably way later.  Years ago, I was driving in central Nagano prefecture, and I happened to be on the road with the sign of “Japanese Alps Salad Kaido”(日本アルプスサラダ街道). It’s because there are a lot of veggie farms along the road and if you pick up veggies from each farm(Please buy them from farmers!😆), you could make a ...

Before traveling to Japan, it’s always good to do research about destination. Good research is the foundation of your enriched travel. However, for those who have never been to Japan, there is always the question of “Where do we start?”.  This is one of the tools I am giving you. One of things I often look for is the signs of 街道(Kaidō).  Kaidō is old highways and routes that have been used for centuries. Kaidō used to be all over, from Edo(modern-day Tokyo) to Kyoto(Tokaido and Nakasendo), to Shomosuwa(Kōshū Kaidō), to Nikko(Nikko Kaidō), to Shirakawa(modern-day Shirakawa city of Fukushima prefecture: Oshu Kaidō), and so on. These first five routes I mentioned are called Edo Five Routes, aka 五街道(Gokaido). These were officially maintained by Edo shogunate during Edo Period(1603-1868).  Here is an example of Kaido route. These bypass following link shows the route of Tokaido highway.  https://www.hiroshige.org.uk/Tokaido_Versions/Tokaido_Versions.htm  (Quoted from...

  I created this blog, hoping to build a bridge between Japan and others, Japanese and other people, whether travel or work or study.  I have read and seen blogs and videos of the same topic. So I have to creative, because otherwise it will be one of these blogs. And it can be very boring.  For those who don’t know me, I am Japanese, born and grew up in central Japan, living in northeastern USA. My wife is an American. And I am a nurse in Japan and the US.(I guess there aren’t many Japanese male nurses working outside Japan). We have 2 kids. We are homeschooling.  I have weird academic degrees: associate degree in nursing, bachelor in German, master in cross-cultural education.  And my tendency is that, when everybody goes on one direction, I go to the other direction.  Anyhow, from these background, I am figuring out what I can do and what I can offer.  I consider the foundation of my Japan travel is central Japan, specifically Aichi, Gifu, Mie, south...