HYPER JAPAN 2012 Christmas

16th May is "Travel Day (tabi no hi)" in Japan, with the date chosen to mark the dayin 1689 on which Matsuo Basho, Japan's most famous haiku poet, set off on his journey along The Narrow Road To The Deep North (Oku no Hosomichi), a travel journal punctuated with some of his most famous haiku poems.

Basho's The Narrow Road is one of the greatest texts in Japanese classical literature, and is an account of his journey, on foot, from Edo (Tokyo) towards the Oku, which means the interior, or the north. The text has most notably been translated by Japanese literature scholar Donald Keene.

Travel Day was established by the Nihon Tabi Pen Club, a national association dedicated to travel writing.