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

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...

 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...