Shuri Kinjo-cho Stone-paved Road

Work on the Madama-michi began around 1522 under King Sho Shin, and the road ran some 4 km from Shuri Castle down to the Madanbashi bridge over the Kokuba River. Most of it was destroyed in the Battle of Okinawa and paved over in concrete, and the surviving stretch through Kinjo-cho was relaid in stone in 1983. Today 238 m of it remains, a prefectural historic site and one of Japan's 100 Best Roads.

The paving stones are limestone, 20 to 30 cm across, worn glossy and cut with grooves on the steep pitches to keep feet from slipping. Old stone walls and red-tiled wooden houses line the lane, and one of them stood in for the heroine's family home in the NHK drama Churasan. Wet stone gets slick, so take care on the way down after rain.