There is so much more to Japan than Tokyo, Osaka, and other “crowd-filled steel-and-concrete metropolises,” said Bill Fink in the San Francisco Chronicle. On my most recent visit, I discovered a different way to see the country, to develop an understanding built upon history and “devoid of Hello Kitty and bullet trains.” For me, a 10-day guided tour was the solution, but our itinerary grew out of a concept that would be useful to any tourist. We were to walk the pathways traveled by each of the four classes in feudal Japan—samurai, peasant, artisan, and merchant. In a sense, the acronym “SPAM” would be our guidebook.
In truth, I could have done without most of the “merchant” stops on our trip. I saw enough souvenir chopsticks and kimonos during our tour to last a lifetime. But those detours were sandwiched between long hikes in the country that allowed us to step back in time. To understand farmers’ lives, we walked the Yamanobe (or “beside the mountain”) Trail, an ancient road that winds through fields and quiet communities, past smiling old women in sun hats and “a fabulous cornucopia of bounty from family-run farms.” Everywhere there was rice, of course, but also eggplants, red peppers, and limes. “The modern mini-tractors added a contemporary touch, as did the scarecrows with Mickey Mouse heads. Still, the friendly small-town vibe of the villages felt as if it had been unchanged for centuries.”
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