This leg is short, only about 4.5 kilometres altogether, but compared with the first two (and the upcoming three) this is more like a hike through a quiet suburb rather than a modern cityscape. The fifth official milestone, the Tsuji ichirizuka is represented by a small monument in the shadow of the Tokyo Outer Ring Road, named C3 on the map below.

The monument to the milestone itself is a beautiful white stone behind an iron fence.

Almost at the end of the leg, right before entering what’s left of the Urawa-shuku (spoiler: almost nothing) is the charming rabbit-themed Tsukinomiya Ten Shrine. This is what’s featured in the first picture up above, but they also have a lot of rabbit statues. Shrines such as this one along the path provide much needed succor from the heat and from traffic.

Finally, the post town itself is just a modern city centre, with a handful of large crossings along with highrises and cars and people, even though they are suspiciously absent in the picture below. There is a small stone marker commemorating the old post town though. Can you spot it?

The stone marker is in the centre of the picture, just to the right of the yellow cable at the bottom of the tallest building.

I kept going and went on towards the next post station before lunch, Ōmiya-shuku.