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

(The picture above: Futagawa Tokaido inn town, Toyohashi city. Captured by me in March 2025.) Here is the overview of my Tokaido highway series. (I will update episodes as I publish each time)  Tokyo-Nihonbashi:  https://off-the-beaten-paths-japan.blogspot.com/2025/01/starting-kaido-101-tokaidonakasendo.html?m=1 Tokyo-Shinagawa:  https://off-the-beaten-paths-japan.blogspot.com/2025/02/tokaido-shinagawa-inn-town.html?m=1 Kawasaki:  https://off-the-beaten-paths-japan.blogspot.com/2025/02/getting-out-of-tokyo-kawasaki.html?m=1 Yokohama-Kanagawa:  https://off-the-beaten-paths-japan.blogspot.com/2025/02/urashima-taro-hokusais-high-waves.html?m=1 Yokohama-Hodogaya:  https://off-the-beaten-paths-japan.blogspot.com/2025/02/hodogaya-hatagoold-inn-still-exists.html?m=1 Yokohama-Totsuka:  https://off-the-beaten-paths-japan.blogspot.com/2025/02/first-ham-made-in-japan-musashisagami.html?m=1 Fujisawa:  https://off-the-beaten-paths-japan.blogspot.com/2025/03/fu...

While we are still working on Tokaido chapter, I decided to start working on San’yodo/Saigoku Kaido chapter.  What routes were covering west of Tokaido prior to modern-day Japan? Which was the popular route in west Japan that people used in order to go east?  Today JR Tokaido line officially goes down to JR Kobe station in Kobe city, and Tokaido Shinkansen goes down to Shin-Osaka station. Beyond these stations, you will notice that these train line names are changed: JR San’yo line from Kobe station, and San’yo Shinkansen from Shin-Osaka station.  Old San’yodo(旧山陽道) starts at Kyoto, and goes through north shore of the river Yodo, bypassing modern-day downtown Osaka, then through Kobe, Himeji, Okayama, Hiroshima, and to Shimonoseki, with the 577km length in total. This route is actually longer than old Tokaido or old Nakasendo. Until the administrative capital was moved from Kyoto to Edo(modern-day Tokyo), San’yodo was regarded as more prestigious than Tokaido and Nakasend...