In his 1921 book "A Diplomat In Japan," written during the 1880s, British diplomat Ernest Satow (1843-1929) wrote widely about travel in Japan: How Japanese people traveled, where they stayed, what they ate and what happened during his own travels on the Tokaido ("Eastern Sea Road") from Tokyo to Kyoto.
Declaring Japanese people to be "great travellers," Satow explains: "The booksellers' shops abound in printed itineraries which furnish the minutest possible information about inns, roads, distances ... and other particulars which the tourist requires."
To this day travel remains easy, or — if not — fairly well documented. And, with increasing English signage and English-language proficiency of people positioned at traveler hotspots throughout the land, the country has never been more accessible.