Kozu - the 17th Station of Tokaido

The first thing you see when you enter Kozu are a group of stone signs that tell you where the roads used to part, and also where the old lantern was.

All of them are really old, so even if you were able to read Japanese, you wouldn't be able to see what each symbol means.  But they were probably important signs long ago.

The town of Kozu has completely been modernized, so the only thing there to see are the sign that tell you where the honjin (lodging for high ranking people) were.  The next sign is the sign of Toiyaba (Horse stable), then the Honjin.  (2 Honjins and 2 Waki-honjin).

I

And it was HOT!  Hot from the heated roads.  No trees to shade you. 

 Being hungry and tired, I was looking for a famous restaurant to have lunch, but it seems to have gone out of business, so I was left alone in the middle of NOTHING...and I mean nothing.  People do not seem to dine out much here.  But I did find Japanese sweets called "Miyasama Manju" which was delivered to the emperor's family long ago.  Sweet, has a hint of "sake," and good.

I decided to all it a day here, and went back to my hotel to rest.

The next day, I started from Seigenji Temple.  This is the temple where Tokugawa Ieyasu (the Shogun that created Edo = Tokyo and the Tokaido) lived when he was held hostage by the Imagawa family.

There were English signs in the temple, so it would be a fun place for English speakers to visit.  You can actually see where Tokugawa Ieyasu studied.

As I walk down the road, I began to realize that there were old houses well reserved in this area.  For example, this house is architected in the old way, but the wooden doors at the front (you need a lot of strength to open one of these) were modernized and the wood plated aluminum doors were installed for ease of use - while preserving the look of the old house.

I saw several more of these houses as I come closer to the next station of Ejiri. 

Here (Hosoi no Matsubara), they have preserved one pine tree to remind people there used to be close to 1,000 pine trees lining the Tokaido.  Unfortunately, the resin from the pine was used to make ships, so they were cut down during the war.

The Tokaido runs on the right side of this pine trees, and several hundred kilometers down the road is Ejiri.