Samarai Trail サムライの道 (a name given by foreigners, not Japanese)

choi

比尔·芬克, 在古老的驿道梦回武士时代. BBC Chinese, Feb 22, 2017
http://www.bbc.com/ukchina/simp/vert-tra-39040505

, which is translated from

Bill Fink, Samurai Dreams Along an Ancient Trail. BBC, Jan 27, 2017.
www.bbc.com/travel/story/2017012 ... ng-an-ancient-trail

Note:
(a) About the German, Slovenian, English, and Jewish (Ashkenazic) nickname Fink.

German-English dictionary:
* Fink (noun masculine): "finch"
https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/Fink

Remember: German noun always has the first letter capitalized.

(b) "At the trailhead, under the shadows of towering pine trees, a large sign warned of bears. * * *  'Please have a thing out of the sound,' recommended the first trail sign, under a picture of an angry-looking bear and some Japanese kanji characters that presumably explained what the translator had meant.
(i) trailhead (n): "the point at which a trail begins"
https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/trailhead
(ii) I do not know the meaning of "have a thing out of the sound."  (My educated guess is something that makes sound.)  In the entire Web, this BBC report is the only one that has this term -- nothing for "out of the sound," either.
(iii) On the sign, it is not kanji but hiragana "あぶない."

Japanese-English dictionary:
* abuna-i 危ない 【あぶない】 (adj): "dangerous"

(c) "I was hiking a segment of the Gokaidō, a network of trails first developed in the 8th Century connecting the capital of Edo 江戸 (Tokyo) with regional towns from Tōhoku 東北[地方] down to Kyoto. The trail network reached its most-trafficked period during the 17th to 18th Centuries, when the Shogun rulers in Tokyo used it regularly, accompanied by their retinues of samurai warrior guards, giving the paths their unofficial moniker as the 'Samurai Trail.' "
(i) Japanese-English dictionary:
* kaidō 街道 【かいどう】 (n): "highway (esp. one existing from the Edo period); main road"
(ii) Gokaidō 五街道
(A) The ja.wikipedia.org has a page titled 五街道, whereas en.wikipedia.org  "Edo Five Routes."  There is no need to read either of them.
(B) A map.

「五街道ゴミ [garbage] 拾い駅伝 [relay] 」開催スケジュールほぼ決定！ AnotherProject, May 2012
http://another-project.com/NEWS/2012/05/post-107.html
(a map captioned "五街道ルート [route] マップ map]")

The five routes were:
東海道  Tōkaidō
中山道  Nakasendō
日光街道  Nikkō Kaidō (one end is Nikkō Tōshō-gū 日光東照宮 (where 徳川家康 was buried in 1617, a year after his death), in Nikkō, Tochigi Prefecture 栃木県 日光(市).  (Incidentally 栃 is horse chestnut.)
奥州街道  Ōshū Kaidō, which connected 陸奥国 (abbreviation: 奥州) in the north and  栃木県 宇都宮市 in the south.  (The city got its name from 宇都宮氏 -- a clan there whose surname is 宇都宮.)
甲州街道  Kōshū Kaidō (one end was 甲斐国 (abbreviation: 甲州), about present-day 山梨県)

Unlike 奥州街道, the other four had 日本橋 at the other end. 日本橋 is a neighborhood in present-day Tokyo, around a bridge of the same name that spans 日本橋川.

(d) "the Nakasendo Trail (literally the 'Central Mountain Route'), remains in sections similar to how it was in the Shogun era. To hike parts of its 500km route through forests, mountains, farms and small villages is to experience something of old Japan * * * my first stop on my four-day, 40km hike would be the old 'Post Town' of Magome, a designation that came in the 17th Century from travelling samurai and government officials who posted their luggage ahead with their retinue to each town along the path. Farther north, in Tōhoku 東北, the historic Post Town of Ōuchi-juku provides a similar Samurai-era experience.
(i) Magome-juku  馬籠宿
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Magome-juku
(ii) Japanese-English dictionary:
* shuku 宿 【しゅく】 (n): "(1) lodging; (n) (2) (See 宿場) relay station; post town"  *The "shuku" is Chinese pronunciation.)
* shuku-ba 宿場 【しゅくば】 (n): "(See 宿駅) relay station (esp on Edo-period highway); post station"
(iii) Ō-uchi-juku  大内宿
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ōuchi-juku

, where the "ō" and "uchi" are both Japanese pronunciations of kanji 大 and 内, respectively.

(e) "Back at my family-run minshuku inn, wearing traditional yukata robes and wooden geta 下駄 sandals, my evening concluded with a soak in a steaming hot bath."
(i) ryokan (inn)  旅館
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ryokan_(inn)
(section 3 Minshuku 民宿)
(ii) yukata  浴衣
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yukata

Traditional kimono for both men and women, boys and girls, has an under-kimono (of similar cut), besides a better-quality outer one (than yukata).