Tokaido

About this board game

Tokaido is a board game for 1–5 players that takes about 45 minutes, inviting travelers to cross Japan’s magnificent East sea road. Along the way, players meet people, taste fine meals, collect beautiful items, discover panoramas, and visit temples and wild places.

The journey unfolds along a linear track of action spaces. The player currently furthest behind always takes the next turn, moving forward to a desired space and resolving its action. This creates a distinctive choice: advance slowly to take more turns, or travel quickly to reach valuable spaces before other travelers do.

Each stop offers a simple action with a different route to points. Some spaces provide money, while others let players spend that money to acquire points. Additional spaces support set collection, award points for stopping there, or provide a randomly determined action drawn from the other types.

• Collect money and spend it for points.
• Build sets of collected items.
• Discover panoramas, temples, wild places, meals, and encounters.
• Choose between taking more turns and reaching destinations quickly.

At the end of the day, everyone arrives at the end of the road and compares their journeys. The goal is to become the most initiated traveler by discovering the most interesting and varied things.

With very simple actions and a unique graphic design, Tokaido creates a peaceful, zen mood while keeping every movement meaningful. Released in 2012, it turns a journey across Japan into a calm contest of timing, collection, and discovery.