Japan 2023

Anne's idea....we were there to walk, so why not walk the Tokaido Trail, which was the ancient route for samurais. The Old Tokaido Road, or Hakone Road, as it was called on one sign. No problems for us: we had mastered Google Translate, and the other walkers were helpful and friendly...

We caught the same train to start with, then a bus to where the walk started (thanks to both Google Translate and a friendly local walker) and down the path we went. Cobble stones, cedar forests, moss, a 400 yo tea house and vast forests, then Hakone at its glorious best, unlike the day before, with Mt Fuji radiating behind it, and an almost empty royal pavilion. Onwards from there we went down a dull road - we met two Germans who told us (correctly) that the path was closed due to a landslip, so we had to follow the road. It was only a few kilometres of drab footpaths and weeds, until the path joined up again and we walked downwards on stony trails towards the coast, though farming villages and past the odd ruined castle grounds. As we walked closer to the city the path became the footpath beside a boring urban road, so we ended up catching the local bus for the last few kms of urban sprawl to the station. We were at Mishima, the city next to Kent's Shizuoka, and, as in Shizuoka, they had green tea bushes everywhere. At Mishima we waited not long and used the passes to catch a bullet train to Odawara. It took perhaps 20 mins on the train and then a 5 minute walk to the hotel: funny to think that an hour or so before we had been walking on mountain cobblestones . Fantastic day, but tiring and sometimes hard going in the sun. 29,478/19.9km and 113Läs mer