Day 22 - From Shizuoka To Okitsu, Walking The Tokaido Road In Japan

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After breakfast, we met Joseph and Wendy and started walking right from our apartments in central Shizuoka, along the Tokaido.
The weather was quite mild, much warmer than yesterday.

We walked across Shizuoka city, passing by malls, restaurants, stores and office buildings.
This was once Fuchū Juku.
Fuchū-juku was the nineteenth of the 53 stations of the Tokaido.
It is located in what is now part of the Aoi area of Shizuoka City.

Two hours into the walk, we stopped at a Starbucks cafe for a rest and a hot drink.
I took off all my layers of clothes, down to a single hiking shirt.

After another 6 km, we stopped for lunch at a traditional soba noodle restaurant called Tamagawa Soba.
The area had a few other Soba restaurants, but this one was the closest to the Tokaido and required the least amount of detour.

It was a very popular locals’ place and we had to wait for fifteen minutes to get a table.
We ordered Zalu soba, chilled buckwheat noodles with a small serving of tempura and a dipping sauce.
I also ordered Zenzai, a sweet red bean soup with toasted mochi which I love and never can get outside of Japan.
Joseph ordered a hot steaming bowl of udon noodles that looked delicious, too.

By lunchtime, we were already halfway into today’s walk, and we had only about ten kilometers more to go to complete the day.
But because we were passing through three post stations today, I wasn’t sure what still remained of the old Jukus, and if we would need extra time to look around and explore, or not.

After lunch, the friendly woman who was the proprietor of the restaurant gave us some candy for the road, and I was feeling very full and heavy.
I don’t like to overeat, but with our shrinking appetites and the energy expenditure of our long walks, I find it hard to estimate how much food is too much.

We continued to walk towards Ejiri post town.
The weather, which had been threatening to rain ever since we finished lunch, finally delivered a few raindrops.
We stopped to put on our raincoats.

Ejiri-juku used to be a bustling post town with the river transportation on the Tomo River pouring into Fuchu, and the shipping activities in Shimizu Port.
For reasons of military protection, the entire town and even the main inn were built on a bend in the road shaped like a fishing hook.
I was only able to see this bend in the Tokaido road in this area, after I had read about it.

Ejiri-juku was also famous as a town that has hosted a three-day market since ancient times.
Later it had a castle and became a castle town, and in later years it developed as a crafts town, with many craftsmen moving here and opening workshops.

Nowadays, Ejiri-Juku has many small old shops.
The Main Street has an old style rice shop selling sacks of rice, a traditional pickle shop, a small shop selling greeting cards and notes, a Knife shop, a shop selling dog toys, a few hair salons with very elderly barbers, a shop selling traditional sweets, a shop selling woven items made from straw, a Tatami rice mat store, a Futon store, and lots of closed shops.

There were signs explaining the old Tokaido road, but no old buildings remained.
The town had a tangible sadness about it. It felt like a dying or a closed town.

Because there was very little to see besides the plaques in this post town, we made good time on our walk.
Once we reached Okitsu post town, even though it was already 4 pm and raining, we entered the local Tokaido museum called the Okitsu Zagyosō, and they happily invited us in to have a look.

The museum attendants brought over clean towels so we could wipe the rain off our raincoats, before we entered the Tatami floor house.
There were many artifacts of a famous politician of the time, who had served two terms as prime minister of Japan.
It was quite a harmonious house, combining traditional Japanese decor elements with wooden and upholstered furniture he acquired from the West.

We looked around the inside, then went outside to see the garden. The second floor of the museum house overlooks the garden area and the surrounding mountains.
We were told that couples about to be married often come here to take their wedding photos.
When we left, they also gave me candy for the road.

We walked through Okitsu-Juku that has been a distribution center for washi (Japanese paper) in the Edo Period, and a famous vacation spot since the Meiji Period.

Okitsu-shuku, with its many temples tied to the Tokugawa family, retained a traditional Japanese feel, and walking through the town, we saw signs of the many elder statesmen who built their vacation homes here, making it famous as a winter retreat.

Then we saw Seikenji Temple famous for its flowering garden.
Founded in the Nara period (710-794), this famous temple on the Tokaido Highway has a history of 1,300 years.
The temple is associated with Ashikaga Takauji and Tokugawa leyasu.
The precincts of the temple are a historic site of the Korean Envoys to Japan, and the garden has been designated as a Place of Scenic Beauty by the national government. The temple has been visited by many literary figures and poets, seeking inspiration.

Then we walked to the train station, where we caught a local train that got us back to Shizuoka by dinner time.
It was dark by the time we got to the apartment because we took a long walk through Shizuoka city and bought some food for our breakfast tomorrow.

We went to do our laundry and ate a pasta at a tiny trattoria run by a single talented chef who also took orders and prepared the drinks.
The pasta was delicious.

With love, and light,
Tali

Today’s Stats:
Steps - 31,939
km walked - 22 km
Total walked: 433 km
Old Post Towns Visited:
Okitsu Juku #17
Ejiri Juku #18
Fuchū Juku #19