Routes, trails and predetermined circuits — Japan can’t seem to get enough of them.
Only have a week to spend on vacation? It’s zipping from metropolis to metropolis on the Golden Route of Tokyo-Kyoto-Osaka for you. Want to stretch your legs through the countryside? A few days hoofing it along the Nakasendo Trail will scratch that itch. Feeling lost in mind, body and soul? Several weeks, months or, in some cases, years visiting each of the 88 temples that make up the Shikoku Henro pilgrimage may deliver the spiritual clarity you seek.
Perhaps that’s why the so-called Three-Star Road linking the central Honshu prefectures of Nagano, Gifu, Toyama and Ishikawa stands out from the pack of Japan’s other prescribed tourist routes: There’s really no road here at all.
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