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

Seriously, I thought of skipping Kawabe inn town. However, I felt compelled to touch the reality of an inn town by the water.  Kawabe inn town has virtually gone, not because of modernization or WWII. Shinmoto, Oda and Takahashi river merge here are n Kawabe, which caused flooding multiple times historically. The most recent one was 2018 Japan Floods.  Look at the overview map.  Ichiruzuka distant marker right before Kawabe inn town used to be here.  When it comes to old houses like the ones from Edo time or Meiji period, these are probably the only ones in this inn town now.  By the way, because of municipal mergers in 2000s, called the Great Heisei Mergers, this area, which used to be Mabi town, became a part of Kurashiki city. Yes, the same Kurashiki city which has famous Bikan historical district.  I couldn’t tell with which temple this graveyard is associated with. There is  Byodoji temple across the street with no online data.  Kawabe honjin...

Katashima inn town is one of those that only history geeks will stop by. And Katashima shared a lot with Shojo inn town, located in about 2km eastward.  When it comes to Katashima inn town, the only online resources I found were Tatsuno city website and a few including Wikipedia.  All of them say that Shojo inn town took care of travelers going eastward, and Katashima for those traveling westward. So together with Shojo inn town, Katashima was a very busy inn town.  I could not find out what this monument was. It appears to honor a local leader of Hirata. 頌徳碑(Shotokuhi) is a monument to honor a person who achieved something for and/or contributed to a local community.  And there is a jizo statue next to it.  Probably this part used to be busy during Edo period.  There is Ryofukuji temple behind these two houses. There are very few online data about this temple. In lesser-known old routes, this is common that you won’t get good info until you get there physi...

In Himeji inn town part 1, we touched the eastern part of Himeji castle town. And we encountered the wonder of two Saigoku Kaido routes.  Let’s get on the street. Here is the overview of central-western part of Himeji inn town/castle town.  This is the north route of Saigoku Kaido.  Close to the central area with arcade street. The north route of Saigoku Kaido goes straight then turns right.  South route, on the other hand, goes completely under the arcades.  The south route is now Nikaimachi business street. Nikaimachi, which literally means, “the town of two-story houses”. In castle towns, only building flat houses were allowed during Edo period. However, this Nikaimachi was an exception. This street became more popular than the primary route of Saigoku Kaido which is the north route. Eventually the south route was recognized as Saigoku Kaido.  The original Saigoku Kaido. There is a sign that explains that many people went down south then westward to Nika...