Here we travel the same roads as the samurai who were on their way to Edo (Tokyo) back in the good old fighting days. Sankin Kotai was a brilliant idea invented by Tokugawa Iemitsu (third Tokugawa Shogun) to keep the previously warring Daimyos slightly off balance, and a little more loyal. Yoshida Shoin has a monument along the way that locates the place where he said goodbye to his students, some of which later became the Choshu Five. In those days it was illegal to try to leave Japan, or enter it for that matter. He was locked up for seditious reasons.