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

 Kakogawa is not a tourist town, but it has a rich history. Just google and go on Kakogawa Tourism Association website, and you will find a bunch of historical sites.  Anyway, let’s start out with the overview. JR Kakogawa station is the closest to Kakogawa Saigoku Kaido inn town.  So I did not find detailed info about where Kakogawa inn town begins. So I just assumed by what looks like the old entry gate of Kaido routes in general. So I welcome any feedbacks and corrections of where it begins and where it ends. This is one of limits of online research.  Later I found out that, the actual inn town appears to have began much closer to the JR station. So this part is not inside the inn town.  One thing for all of us to know is that the original route goes on and off from a major national route or prefectural route. This is due to modernization and authorization of the society. The original routes tend not to be wide enough for two cars to drive by without slowing ...

I did not put any subtitle on this page because Okubo inn town is another one that has very scarce online information. It is located in western part of Akashi city.  Around this area, one of the most famous things is Akashi man which is a piece of human hip bone that was supposedly 780,000 years old. This was found on coast of Akashi, not far from Okubo inn town. I will post the link of an article about Akashi Man.  This looks like then entry to Okubo inn town.  I looked up Morita Sumiyoshi shrine online…almost no data, or a very little info.  These old houses do not look like someone is living… At least, the house on the left side looks like a Hatago business hotel. But without any info, I cannot tell.  I found a Christian church by Saigoku Kaido route. Between late 1500s-early 1600s, there were many Christians throughout Japan. But only fractions of them survived intense persecutions by Tokugawa shogunate.(The current church here probably has very little to do...

I admit that I am not a tech savvy.😅 But at least these are things I did in order for my readers to be able to search routes and areas.  When you click “Labels” under Archive section on the front page, you will find labels according to areas, routes and topics.  It’s not perfect, but it’s still better than nothing.  Hope this helps☺️

 As far as my online research went, there are very few resources about Okuradani Saigoku Kaido inn town. All I got was that Okuradani is on the east side of the extension of Akashi castle town.  Where there is little data, I will just go explore what Google map and street view show. Here is the overview.  The possible entrance to Okuradani inn town is right after bearing right from Kobe/Kyoto side. There is Hachiman shrine on the right.  Back to the eastern edge of the inn town, there are already old houses lining up on the street.  Old house lineups are sporadic, and I can tell that this is not a typical tourist site.  Some old houses have white walls sticking out from both edges of the house. These are called Udatsu. It’s Edo-tune fire prevention wall.  I found a little Shinto shrine in front of someone’s house. I wonder why… This house has Udatsu fire prevention wall. I circled red on the picture.  You see more Udatsu.  This structure seem...

Yui(由比) inn town is another beautiful inn town by the coastline of Suruga Bay. There is a little fisherman’s port that is known for Sakura shrimp, a little cherry-pink shrimp.  The view from JR Tokaido line is awesome, although E1 Tomari highway viaducts distracts for time to time.  桝形(Masugata) means square, and when you see a sign that says “Masugata”, this is another term of Mitsuke. So, this is the eastern edge of Yui inn town where guards were stationed.  Yui inn town is another one among Tokaido inn towns between Shizuoka and Tokyo, which preserves many old houses from old Tokaido time.   There used to be 七里飛脚(Shichiri Hikyaku) office. This was a special postal service set up by certain clans. Basically it’s a special express postal service, so Hikyaku mailmen were specially equipped including swords. The one here was Kishu(today’s Wakayama prefecture) Tokugawa clan’s special postal service.  This old house on the left is a buckwheat noodle shop, and opens...

I passed by Kanbara multiple times by JR Tokaido line local and express, but I have never stopped by.  My Google map street view research shows that Kanbara(and Yui inn town as well) preserves the best of what an old inn town used to look like, more than any inn towns on Tokaido between Shizuoka and Tokyo.  Edo-side Mitsuke(guard gate) is located here. Note that there are two train stations that have “Kanbara” on: Kanbara and Shin-Kanbara. Edo-side Mitsuke is very close to Shin-Kanbara station.  On the left, there is Kiya Edo museum. Apparently this three-story warehouse is a museum that displays old documents about this area and businesses. As a three story warehouse, this is the fifth oldest in Japan.  I circled two things here, but according to the website of Shizuoka prefecture, both appears the same.  If you compare old towns like Takayama or Tsumago, Kanbara might not be as attractive as these two. However, up until Kanbara, all inn towns on Tokaido routes...