Mishima

Mishima Taisha, c. 1832

Mishima Taisha, c. 1994

Mishima is the eleventh station on the Tokaido. According to Wikipedia, it's the source of the pseudonym of the Japanese author Hiraoka Kimitake. It's also Keiko's hometown.

We lived in Mishima for just over a year in the 1990s, literally a stone's throw away from the Tokaido in an apartment building called Kyoei Building, not to be (but often) confused with the run-down apartment building on the other side of town called Kyoei Mansion.

The Izu Hakone railway passed by our window. Not far away there was a railway crossing. We soon got used to the noise, so much so that we were always surprised when guests stayed and complained about being woken up when the first train went by just before six in the morning.

It was only a few minutes walk from our apartment to Mishima Taisha, the famous shrine depicted in Hiroshige's print of Mishima in the series The Fifty-Three Stations of the Tokaido. Along with the gardens at Rakujuen, Mishima Taisha is one of Mishima's main tourist attractions. The car park was often crowded with tour buses bringing people from who knows where. But for us Mishima Taisha was a place we passed on the way to the station, a quiet place to go for a stroll and look at the carp, a place to go and watch the archery, or to go and feed the deer.

I wonder what thoughts will go through my head when I return to Mishima Taisha in June.

Distance walked today: 10.7km
Total distance walked since Tokaido training began: 24.3km
Days left until departure: 87