ABSTRACT
At the turn of this new century the word tabi (moving, journey, trip) seems to enjoy a wide usage, in spite of being associated with famous historical journeys on foot through the Japanese archipelago, which will be examined later on. To put it in other words, those walks through a Japan of past eras seem still to play a part as icons of contemporaneous journeys. Although another word meaning travel (ryoko¯) does exist, the idea behind tabi seems to correspond to a need still prevailing in a world where the internet allows travellers to book their stay directly thousands of kilometres away from their destination. Two Chinese characters form the word ryoko¯: one which is the same as tabi and the other which means ‘moving’. Before going further and in order to introduce the present context, we shall illustrate the popularity of the notion of tabi through a large variety of examples in today’s Japan.
