The country of the rising sun, the Tokaïdo or, literally "the road from the sea to the east," is the spine for the roadways around which modern Japan was created to put an end to the absolute power of the shoguns and the samurais. Today rites and traditions in Japan are rife with symbolism where every detail has significance, and where the tea ceremony, calligraphy and gastronomy are evidence of a lifestyle whose refinement has been pushed to its zenith.