Tokaido Walk(18) Kanaya-Nissaka:April 30, 2012

It is the third day of my “Golden Week” holidays. I walked from Kanaya to Nissaka.

The area is hilly and mountainous. There spread tea fields everywhere in the region. New tea leaves was just grown.  The air was fresh.


People usually start picking up tea leaves in the 88th day from the new year in old calendar (usually Feb. 4th). It is around May 2nd.

The seasonal scene is described in a popular Japanese song Cha-tsumi (tea picking):

-- Natsu mo chikazuku hachiju-hach ya
No nimo yama nimo wakaba ga shigeru …
(It is the 88th day from the new year and
fresh green appears in the fields and mountains … )

It was the first day of tea picking in some fields. I saw many farmers (some of them wore traditional Japanese straw hats) working hard in the fields.

It was fun to exchange words with them taking lunch at the side of their fields.

Oi River flows under tea-field hill near Kanaya station. I found many polls standing in the fields. They have rotating fans on the top, which defend the fields (with their moves and sounds) from birds.

I climbed Nakayama Pass. It was one of three steepest passes in Tokaido (another two are Hakone Pass in Kanagawa Prefecture and Suzuka Pass in Mie Prefecture).

The road was covered with stones. They repaired the road about 10 years ago and the situation in the Edo period was restored.


This area is also famous for a great “waka” poet Saigyo. One of his most famous works was written here.

-- Toshi takete mata koyubeshito omoikiya
inochi narikeri Sayono Nakayama
(I have not even dreamed of returning to this place after getting old
I strongly feel “life” at Sayo no Nakayama)


I arrived in Nissaka, the 25th station. It is a small town in the mountainous area.