Day 2 - From Otsu To Kusatsu, Walking The Tokaido Road In Japan

 

Day 2 - From Otsu To Kusatsu, Walking The Tokaido Road In Japan

We dressed up warmly, and after a hearty breakfast, we checked out of our Kyoto hotel and took the subway to the post town of Otsu, where we had stopped walking yesterday.
We first dropped our backpacks at our Otsu hotel, the Biwako, and then went to Zeze Station, to continue walking from yesterday’s stopping point on the Tokaido.
The weather was lovely today, mild and partly sunny, great weather for walking.

The Tokaido road is actually a lot longer than the google map route from Otsu to Kusatsu, and it crosses the Seta River which feeds Biwa Lake, underneath an older and very historic bridge.
The lake is so large that it looks like an ocean, with no view of the other side.

We are now committed to walking only on the historic Old Tokaido road, with just a few exceptions, like taking a road to the train station to return to our accommodation, or a detour to go to use the toilets in a convenience store, a community center or a train station.

The Tokaido road is very well marked, with many painted wooden or copper signs, rest areas, toilets and engraved stone markers.
There is not much left of the old inns and restaurants that used to line the streets of each of the post towns, but there are still stone markers and signs everywhere, explaining the history and stories of each mountain river and old town on the Tokaido road.
There is no mistaking that you’re walking on the Old Tokaido Road.

The Road winds and twists its way through many residential areas, crossing many bridges and valleys.
At first, we talked about how we should walk this pilgrimage.
Should we just make our way from post town to post town, or follow the Tokaido road exactly, with its twists and turns, which make the path much longer than it seems.
Finally we decided to walk the whole historic Tokaido road with no shortcuts.

The Old Tokaido is so different from the newer roads that run through Japanese towns.
There are no car dealerships, gas stations, department stores, schools or big restaurants on the Old Tokaido Road.
In fact, there were very few restaurants, cafes or stores for most of today’s walk.

Our first stop today was at the entrance to a very important bridge, the only bridge that once crossed the river to Kyoto, the Karahashi Bridge.
It was once said that “He who controlled the Karahashi Bridge, controlled the whole world!”
That was because the “Whole World,” in those times, consisted of the small territory between Edo (Tokyo) and Kyoto.
It was considered one of the three most famous ancient bridges in Japan, along with the Uji Bridge and the Yamazaki Bridge.

We sat on the foundation stones of the statue memorializing the bridge, and ate a banana each and drank some water.
These simple stops along the walk save us time and provide a quick refreshment for us to get off our feet and restore our energies.

After crossing the bridge, we continued following the winding path of the Old Tokaido Road, until two more hours had passed and we had started looking for another place to rest in.

We came upon the Happy Dragon coffee roasters and cafe.
This tiny cafe had only two tables and offered a tiny menu of either hot or iced coffee, served without milk or sugar, only small packets of creamers and sugar syrup.
But we needed the break and wanted to sit down to rest our feet, so we ordered their roasted coffee, which was actually very tasty, with some of their cookies.

I don’t really love this minimalist style of coffee shops that has sprouted up all over Japan when the popularity of coffee became so widespread.
They don’t offer tea for people like me who doesn’t like coffee, and some of those minimalist hard core cafes don’t even have any sweeteners or milk, thinking that it spoils the purity of flavor of their coffee.
Anyway, we had no other choices and it was nice to rest indoors.

We left the cafe and continued to walk down the Old Tokaido Road, eventually coming to the large memorial for the junction of the Tokaido and Nakasendo trade routes, just a short distance from the end of our walk today near Kusatsu Station.

These two mighty routes used to have many little restaurants, inns and businesses along them.
Here the eastern sea Tokaido road and the Nakasendo inner mountain road joined together, becoming the most important junction for travel and commerce at the time.

Ukiyo-e woodblock prints made from the drawings of the famous artist Hiroshige, who painted all the 53 stations of the Tokaido, show the way life was conducted in the Kusatsu post town.
For tired travelers who didn’t have time to sit down for a full meal in one of the restaurants, there were street tea stalls that sold tea along with the Kusatsu specialty, “Ubaga Mochi" rice cakes.

"Ubaga Mochi" is a specific kind of ankoro mochi, which is a Japanese rice cake (mochi) that is filled with or wrapped in sweet bean jam (anko).
Travelers and horsemen all rested here from the fatigue of their journeys.

We were also done for the day, and we returned to Otsu by train.
We said good night to Joseph and Wendy, who left to eat dinner by the station, and we sat enjoying Earl Grey teas in Starbucks.
We talked about how our day went, and how it always takes us a week or more before we get used to walking all day long.
Despite walking many pilgrimages through the years, it is always difficult to be on our feet for many hours, and to start enjoying the journey despite some pain in our feet.

Instead of waiting for the free hotel shuttle, we had an invigorating jog down to our hotel from Otsu station.
Business people were filing into the local restaurants, many already getting drunk to numb the pain of ordinary working days and lives devoid of adventure and fun.

We checked into the hotel, claimed our backpacks and had a good soak in the hotel’s hot spring baths.
Too tired to go out again into the cold night air, we ate a big salad, baked vegetables and pomodoro pasta at the hotel restaurant.

During the Coronavirus in 2020, we stayed at this hotel for more than a week, when we walked the Saigoku Kannon pilgrimage.
Most of the hotels we had booked cancelled our reservations and closed down, so we stayed here and walked daily to the temples and returned by train.
Otsu town was a ghost town and all the restaurants were closed, so we ate all our dinners at this hotel.

At least they kept the Onsen hot springs bath open for us then, as we always enjoy relaxing after long days of walking.

Sending you love and blessings,
Tali

Today’s Stats:
28,506 steps
19 km
Total walked: 37.5 km
Old Post Station Towns Visited:
Otsu, Station #53
Kusatsu, Station #52