Day 4 - Mikumo To Tsuchiyama, Walking The Tokaido Road In Japan

 

Day 4 - Mikumo To Tsuchiyama, Walking The Tokaido Road In Japan

In many Japanese hotels, including modern ones, you might get a pillow that is stuffed with rice, barley or a modern version that is made from plastic grains.
There is an old belief in Japan that rice pillows are very restful and provide a wholesome sleep.

Old traditions are woven into the fabric of the culture here and are not changed easily.
The tradition of using rice pillows started when most of the people were farmers, growing their own vegetables and rice.
They worked hard days in the Sun and had little money.
The traditional pillow in Japan in those days was made of wood or ceramic, and it looked like a small low bench.
It probably was a torture to sleep on it.

The farmers decided to bag some rice in a piece of fabric to make a much more comfortable pillow, and after long days of farming, they slept so much better at night.
Their children, who went to schools and universities in the cities, slept on the same rice or barley pillows and it reminded them of home and the love of their parents, of nights full of stars and the sounds of insects and birds that are the overtone music of the countryside.

And so the tradition of rice pillows stuck, and now, all of us, travelers and pilgrims alike, have to suffer from stiff necks, because we have to sleep on uncomfortable pillows stuffed with what feels like gravel or pebbles.

After breakfast, we checked out of our hotel, and with our backpacks, we took the train back to Mikumo station to continue our walk along the Tokaido Road.
It was a really cold day, and we bundled up with all of our clothing, a scarf, gloves and a warm hat under our wide brim cowboy hats.
It made our backpacks lighter, because we were wearing most of our clothes.

The Tokaido is very charming and scenic in some parts, where there are many signs of the old station post towns.
Minakuchi post town is located in the Koka region, which is a leading sake-producing area, with about one-third of the sake breweries in Shiga Prefecture concentrated there.

It is also known as a fertile area with clean water, which makes it well suited for growing rice.
It was also considered an important post town on the Tokaido road, because it is located on the Mitsuke River, and it has a fully restored Tokugawa family castle.

We detoured to see the castle because the Tokaido originally extended straight east from Minakuchi, but was diverted north on three occasions, when Minakuchi Castle was built.

When it was time for lunch, we took another detour to eat lunch at the Sorano Cafe in Minakuchi.
They are famous for their fish sandwiches and egg salad sandwiches.
We were happy to warm up indoors, and the sandwiches were exceptionally delicious and we also enjoyed hot Yuzu lemon and honey tea.

It felt so cold when we left the cafe and continued walking.
About an hour later, my fingers were so cold that I couldn’t bend them to take photos or to plug in my phone battery charger.

We stopped at community centers along the way in order to use their toilets, because we didn’t find many convenience stores on the Tokaido, where we would normally pee.
All along the way, we used the toilets at community centers, pilgrims rest areas and Buddhist temples.

Our pace of walking in a group is fairly slow, about 3 km an hour, instead of the 4-5 km an hour which is what Jules and I usually do if we walk in the countryside, without frequent traffic lights slowing us down.

It is not that Joseph and Wendy are slow walkers. They walk at the same pace as us, but as a group, we are moving slower.

So each day I have to adjust our walking target goal, and decide on what station we will stop walking at, and then return to it the next day to continue our walk.

My goal for today was to walk to Tokaido Tenmakan Museum, a small local museum in Tsuchiyama-Juku, located in a charming old building on the Tokaido.

Wendy had arranged for the museum staff to call a taxi for us, because the only other way to get to Seki town where we would be staying for the next two nights, is to take a local bus then two trains which would take us 3 hours.

This section of the Tokaido is pretty, with old houses and small villages.
We are staying two nights at the edge of Seki old town, because the distance is too long to walk over the Suzuka mountain pass and enjoy seeing Seki town in one day.
We plan to do it in two days.
Unfortunately, both of the days we will be climbing up and down the mountain pass, are very cold and rainy.

We didn’t make it to the museum before everyone was tired and it was getting late and colder.
Instead, we reached a cute and comfortable cafe and decided to have some tea and a cake.

Wendy asked the staff to call a taxi in about half an hour, after we finished our drinks, but something went wrong with the communication and they called the taxi immediately.
It was a bit comical seeing the misunderstanding between Wendy and the cafe staff, but we didn’t have much time to laugh, and we quickly packed up and got into the taxi.

The hotel I booked had very small rooms with unclean and overused hot springs public baths.
I had to clean clumps of hair from the hot pool waters, and decided that it wasn’t worth it.
I only showered, soaked my tired legs, and quickly left.

The hotel is located at the intersection of some major roads, and there were not many dinner options nearby.
We ate at a shokudo (set meal) restaurant that mostly truck drivers stopped to eat at.

I reviewed the day in my mind before I fell asleep.
I was missing diving and feeling burdened by wearing shoes all day after months of diving where I was in flip flops all day every day.

Is it worth it to do this?… walking many hours every day, getting sunburned, seeing old and mostly deserted towns, when I could be in Bali drinking fresh juices, diving in the warm sea and eating gourmet vegan food?…
I have no answer.
But I always finish what I started, the rule being that you should never quit on a bad day…
So I will push these doubts aside and keep walking.

With love and doubts,
Tali

Today’s Stats:
25,654 steps
17 km
Total walked: 76.5 km
Old Post Towns Visited:
Minakuchi-Juku Station #50
Tsuchiyama Juku Station #49