Toyohashi, Aichi

The tracks converge at Toyohashi Station — Shinkansen, JR, Meitetsu, and the slow city tram all arriving at the same point before fanning out again. The tram, run by Toyohashi Tetsudo, still rattles along the Higashida Line through ordinary streets, past bicycle shops and convenience stores, the kind of route that exists for commuters rather than sightseers.

Toyohashi has long sat at a junction — between the old Tokaido road and the sea, between Mikawa's agricultural interior and the open trade of Mikawa Port. The post-town of Futakawa-juku, preserved at the Futakawa-juku Honjin Shiryokan, gives a sense of how the Edo-period road traffic moved through here. Inland, the fields produce shiso and Jiro persimmons in quantities that supply much of the country, and the quail eggs sold quietly in supermarkets here come largely from local farms. Chikuwa, the grilled fish-paste tube sold warm at market stalls, is a local staple rather than a souvenir — something eaten at lunch, not photographed.

At the Ankyumi Kando Shinmei Shrine, the Oni Matsuri — a festival recognized as an important intangible folk cultural property — draws the neighborhood into something older and less tidy than a civic parade. Elsewhere, at Iwata Hachimangu, hand-held firework cylinders called tezutsu hanabi are offered at the annual festival, fire held at arm's length in the dark. These are not performances staged for visitors; they persist because the people here have kept them.