William There’s this thing called “ekiden” which is rather unique to Japan and of quite importance to Higo, being quite distant from the capital. The term means “station running,” and might be similar to the early American west stagecoach system - except that humans, rather than horses, were used for locomotion. A common approach was to cross from Higo to Oita, and hence by ship to Edo. Thus, a dedicated path was created. It still exists, and the Higo line of JR traverses it. (I know this as I have run it several times, much to the dismay of my knees.) Email has kinda eliminated the need for such communication, but memory remains. Kumamoto has thus become world-renowned for long-distance runners. Kumanichi has an article on the Pearl Line Marathon, but better would be to go to the start: Kanakuri Shisou (金栗 四三). The major marathon in Kumamoto bears his name. https://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E9%87%91%E6%A0%97%E5%9B%9B%E4%B8%89 https://search.yahoo.co.jp/image/search?ei=UTF-8&fr=mcafeess1&p=%E8%82%A5%E5%BE%8C%E5%A4%A7%E5%88%86%E9%81%93%E8%B7%AF#4b65da2d3c0b94c9f3bca03ee2f5794a