Tokaido Epilogue 1: Fundraising update

Thanks to many lovely and very generous people, the Tokaido trek has helped raise over $1500 for the Indigenous Literacy Foundation and their great work providing books and other literacy-related services for some of the most disadvantaged children in Australia. To everyone who has contributed, heartfelt gratitude.

Sadly, however, I’m still $425 short of my target – which means, as things stand, I’ll be spared a night in one of Japan’s legendary capsule hotels. Back when I set the target, I hoped that the promise of consigning me to a night of discomfort in a box little bigger than a coffin would encourage people to contribute to not only a very worthwhile cause (Indigenous literacy) but also a slightly sadistic one (me: capsule).

The good news is that the fundraiser is still open, and I have nine more nights in Japan! Currently I plan to spend all of them in the comfort of a conventional hotel room (bed, floor, standing room … that sort of thing), but I can change the schedule to accommodate a night in a capsule if the target is met. Pictures will be posted for your delectation and amusement.

So if you’ve been thinking about contributing – perhaps waiting to see whether I would actually walk all the way from Tokyo to Kyoto (executive summary: I did) – now would be the perfect time to do so. This link will take you directly to my ILF fundraising page.

Thank you!

Tokaido prologue

Hiroshige, Fifty-three Stations of the Tokaido . No. 26: Kakegawa I visited Japan in 2017 and 2019, on the second occasion with Fred, as well as my partner (with whom I’d travelled in 2017) and her son. Like most people who come for the first (or second) time, we took the Shinkansen – bullet train – from Tokyo to Kyoto on the line called the Tokaido. Volumes have been written about the wonders of Japan’s Shinkansen system. It is, I think, something that should be experienced at least once in everyone’s life if possible. ‘Tokaido’ means ‘eastern sea road’, and the line bears that name because it follows – more or less – the route of the centuries-old road that linked the Imperial capital of Kyoto with the Shogunate’s headquarters in Edo (now Tokyo), respectively the seats of ceremonial and administrative power. For hundreds of years, thousands of travellers made the 500-kilometre trip between the two cities (and usually back again), the vast majority of them on foot: horses were rare, t...

Tokaido Day 14 – Wednesday, 22nd November: Fukuroi to Takatsuka (32 km)

The clouds had disappeared overnight, and the day was bright and clear. Maybe a couple of degrees warmer than recent days, but still great conditions for walking. After buffet breakfast at the hotel, I took the train back to Fukuroi. From the station it was another kilometre or so just to get back onto the Tokaido – or so I thought. When I checked the map in the guidebook it turned out I’d walked further than I needed. Never mind. Outside a temple, a group of jizo looked particularly handsome in the early-morning light: So much care has gone into this little tableau, from the hats and bibs to the fresh flowers. A fine example of an ichirizuka (a reconstruction, as it turned out) was accompanied by a plaque that carried an English summary: Opposite the ichirizuka, a shrine seemed like a good place to pay my respects for the day. As I was leaving, I was greeted by a gentleman I’d noticed at Fukuroi station and noted as a possible fellow walker. Yamada-san had, in turn, spotte...

Tokaido Day 15 – Thursday, 23 November: Takatsuka to Futagawa (30km)

Slightly warmer again today, although with a haze that obscured the more distant views. I again took advantage of the hotel’s free breakfast before jumping on a Tokaido local train one stop down the line to Takatsuka. Not far down the road, a large shrine provided an opportunity to pay my respects and hope for a successful day’s walking. There was little of interest between Takatsuka and Lake Hamana, although it was good – as always – to come across an avenue of typical Old Tokaido pines: I stopped for a takeaway coffee from a konbini and spotted a park opposite that offered shade and benches. It turned out to be the grounds of a shrine, hidden amongst the trees, but as a group of seniors was setting up for a game of that golf-croquet hybrid I’d seen a few days earlier, I figured recreation was just as valid as devotion in this particular spot. A woman parked her bicycle near my bench and spoke to me; I adopted the default position of smiling and nodding, and gesturing to indicat...

A Single Step

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