Walking along the ancient Tokaido Road - A Pilgrim’s Path: Adventures and Transformations (Vol.1: Departure)

Decoding Japanese Culture Through a 16-Year Introspective Journey of the Tokaido Road

"Most travelers visit Japan to see its beauty. A man from Tokyo walks to see the culture and its controls."

In 2006, following a life-altering accident and eight months of recovery, Ichiro Asanuma stood at Nihonbashi — the "Kilometer Zero" of Tokyo. Armed with a guidebook and the insurance money from his recovery, he set out with machine-like focus on his physical goal of reaching Kyoto, he embarked on a 494km pilgrimage along the ancient Tokaido Road.

This is not a typical travelogue designed to motivate you with fantastic romance. It presents unembellished, pragmatic themes that appear as both ordinary views and hidden secrets, reflecting the complex mixture of factors in our world.

Vol. 1 covers the first leg of a 16-year journey from Tokyo to Shizuoka, documenting the Tokaido through personal memoir, roadside photographs, and cultural observation. The book pairs Utagawa Hiroshige's famous 19th-century ukiyo-e prints of each post station with contemporary photographs of the same route — inviting readers to see what has changed and what has not across nearly two centuries.

"I came away moved, a little exposed, and impatient for the next volume — not for plot, but for company with a voice this candid." — BookBelow

"Fans of authors such as Pico Iyer will find much to love in Ichiro Asanuma's reflective approach to travel writing." — Carol Thompson, Readers' Favorite


"Adventure and transformation await on the Old Tokaido."

Will you—who are allowed to have emotionally stubborn, personal dreams—join the inquiry into what defines the Japanese people and their social systems, diving into a vast ocean of fear and similar selfish dreams?