Travel Day!

It’s Travel Day today. Japan’s Travel Pen Club set this day in 1988 to remind people of the spirit of traveling, as well as to commemorate the day Basho Matsuo set out on his journey to The Narrow Road to the Deep North. By the way, the phrase “Yayoi mo sue no nanoka” that appears in his haiku refers to March 27 of Year 2 on the Christian calendar, which is reflected as May 16 on the Solar calendar. Due to the waxing and waning of the moon which affects the Japanese calendar, and the insertion of intercalary months in the Solar calendar, the date in the haiku is 2 months early. In conjunction with Travel Day, we have travel-related illustrations featured here today. Enjoy!