[Li Jianliang]

Originally Posted by Jan-Poo

1) it is something around the line of a family tree
2) there are things that can go up and down on it
3) you can find it in an atlas
4) it goes through a village, or many villages (whatever "village" means)
5) it has a connection with the sea (whatever "sea" means)
6) it is not a river

I tried the family tree thing and found, after days of research, it's a dead end (I could not get past the 'shore'). It's definitely not the family tree in my opinion.

I looked at a general map of Japan via Google Maps, and the only things I could see going up and down are:

Spoiler:

1) Temperature
2) Interstate highways
3) Interstate train railways

Temperature is just far to vague and immaterial to work with.
Highways are all over the country and have a ton of exits. It's too busy to be specific.
Railway is the only one with clear and visible parts, since it doesn't have an exit every kilometer or something like a highway.

So I'm working off of railways now.

Spoiler for working off assumption:

Assuming that the 'kyou' (郷) in Ougonkyou or Ougon no Kyou is referencing 'kyou' (京). 'Kyou' (京) appears in the Japanese names for Tokyo and Kyoto most prominently on a general map.

I ignored all minor railways in Japan and just looked for the biggest, of which Japan's pride and joy, Shinkansen (bullet train), stood out. Looking up the history of Shinkansen on Wikipedia, only one of the Shinkansen railways was built early enough to fit in with young Eva's first chat with what appears to be Eva in her 30's.

The Tokaido Shinkansen Railway, opened in 1964.

Looking up on where it goes exactly on Wikipedia, it runs from Tokyo through Odawara through Kyoto to Osaka. That seems like I'm on the right track, since there's Tokyo, Kyoto, and even Kinzo's childhood home in there.

Trains have inbound and outbound routes. By 'going down' the 'river', 'going down' also means outbound in Japanese, so I need to follow the railway going away from the home station, Tokyo. So if Kyoto is the 'Golden Land', since it has a 'kyou' (京) and Tokyo is the starting point of 'zero', then it makes Kyoto the tenth stop.

At this point I'm guessing each of the nights is a metaphor for each of the stops between Odawara and Kyoto, with the tenth night being Kyoto, because the journey is over and you have reached the ''kyou' (京) of Gold'.

Beyond the above speculation I have not found or figured out what the 'village' (里) is, so I'm stuck again.

Originally Posted by chounokoe

The problem with that is, that many things may have been wiped of maps and heavily refurbished since then...and we have to consider that Eva may have looked it up in an Atlas that went back to Kinzo's youth, which would again be totally different as even the heavy refurbishment through the Americans did not yet happen.
If anyone knows a good site that collects older maps, I think we would all be a bit happier.

Indeed, I'm going to try checking with the local and university libraries to see if they have an older map of Japan. Google is being too helpful. Every time I try to search for 'kyou' (郷) or 'village' (里), it keeps directing me to nursing homes ('Roujin Home: _____ no Kyou/Sato)'.