Mishima - the 11th station of Tokaido

Having bypassed the Hakone mountain by the modern means of travel, train, I am feeling a little guilty this morning.

However, nothing is more important than life.  Marching into dark paths alone is dangerous, so it is a judgement call I had to make.  Hakone is a path I will walk with a companion - some day.

Back on the Tokaido path.  I am now at Mishima.  I walk straight down the road from the station, turn right at the old tokaido, and the first sign I see on the right is the Seko Honjin (main lodging).  Again, no old lodging house, but just a sign.

There is another Honjin, Higuchi Honjin across the street from this mark, so this is the center of the Misima-shuku.

As I walk, it started to rain.  Not a lot, but enough to have to take out my umbrella.  So with the guidebook in one hand, the umbrella on the other, and iPhone Google Maps now in my pocket, it is becoming more difficult to find the path and marks of the highway 400 years old.

And I almost passed the Akiba shrine!  This shrine is nice, but what is important is the sign that stands at the foot of the gate.  It is Nishi Mitsuke (formal sign that marks the western end of the station town).

On and on I walk in the rain, and the next place I visited was the Tamai Temple Ichirizuka (4km mark).  This is one of the rare locations where the Ichirizuka still exists in pairs, as did all Ichirizuka 400 years ago.  The ichirizuka on the right hand side is also the Ichirizuka, preserved just the way it was 400 years ago.

A small hill with a tree at the top to give shading for the travellers.  NOW you can see, it was really created so that people can rest here.

Back on track, walking through the modern bed town, crossing the river, I reach Nagasawa Hachimangu Shrine, where the "Taimen Ishi" where two brothers of the Minamoto family met each other during the war, sat down face to face in joy of reunion.  (It is in the far left corner of the Temple)

Then comes the long long walk toward Numazu, a long and miserable walk in the rain.  By the time I reached this Jizo-son (marks the place where Hirasaku traded in his life for information on the person who killed an important person for him), I was only thinking about finding marks from 400 years ago, and nothing else.

 Then, I found Ichirizuka (4km sign) near Numazu.  Ichirizuka is becoming something I look forward to seeing, because I can tell how much progress I made.

Rain is getting harder.  It was a bad idea to press forward in the rain.  But I had made it a rule to at least walk 10km per day.  It is just like work - you set the objective, and you execute.  (Which proved to be the wrong mentality when you are trying to communicate with the past, but it took me 1 more day to realize this)

So I walk into Numazu-shuku, not yet the end of the journey for today.