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Breath deep, find your Zen, focus on your inner peace, and do a little retail therapy at the souvenir shop.
Tokaido is the personification (gameification?) of a great Cozy game. The setting is a simple stroll from Edo to Kyoto in Ancient Japan. You'll be stopping at various relaxing locations along the way and you'll be joined by other players who are also enjoying the serenity of the great East Sea Road. See, it's the epitome of Cozy!
Look, up ahead, it's Chuubei, one of the other players on this meandering journey. It looks like he's stopping at the Temple! Well, it looks like Mr. Big Yen Chuubei is donating a whopping three coins at the temple. Hmmm, that immediately gave them Three Points. It looks like he's moved out to an early lead, * checks purse * I guess we can stop at the Temple and make a donation ourselves...wait, what? We can't stop at the Temple because Chuubei was here first? Well, that hardly seems fair...Actually, it seems sort of cutthroat. 
Of course, Chuubei isn't blocking you at every location...it just seems that way.
No worries, we're just on a quiet stroll here. Let's stop in at the shop and pick up a souvenir of this friendly little walk. What a great selection! Small objects, clothing, some eminently portable art and food and drinks! And we can buy as many as we want and creating sets of all the items scores us points? Yes, please!
* looks in purse * Well, that did drain our resources. We should probably stop at one of the many fine farms along the way. The farmers are extremely generous and will give you three coins when you visit them. Wait a minute, who is that talking to the Farmer? Good ole Chuubei, snatching up three coins and blocking the damn path to the farm so that we can't get a few yen we need on our journey! 
Whew, take a few deep breaths, go to your happy place. Let's just stop at the Hot Springs for a relaxing bath and take a load off our aching feet. Wait a minute, Freaking Chuubei is at the bloody Hot Springs! No, No, don't worry about us Chuubei, we're just covered in dust and getting blisters. Just sit there, manspreading, so no one else can get into the Hot Springs.
You know what, I'm probably just a bit hangry. We should stop at the Inn, get something eat and rest for the night. Oh, look, Chuubei seems to have beat us here and our remaining meal choices are either soggy Tempura or limp seaweed...and it's the most expensive Tempura I have ever had the misfortune of purchasing.
Good Morning! It's a new day and Chuubei is no where in sight. Maybe I just need to bust out the easel at the edge of the seascape and do a little relaxing painting. For the love of Buddha, Chuubei and his bloody hat is blocking the view. I can't even see to paint this Panorama. How the hell am I going to finish this before I reach Kyoto! Points are slipping away! 
Sigh, I think I just need a change of scenery, some new people to have a nice low-key conversation with. Oh, up ahead is the famed Samurai Kuge, he's always good for a few points. Whose that sprinting out of the woods? Chuubei is running up and talking to Kuge. Kuge is giving him three points and I'm left here in these damn uncomfortable shoes and I swear I'm getting pit stains on my yukata.
The latest edition of Tokaido comes from Stonemaier Games who had the good sense to not mess with what makes Tokaido the original Cutthroat Cozy game. There are a few changes, like an improved Victory Point Track that now fully circles to board, higher quality Panorama Cards and a Solo Mode for anyone who was requesting that feature. The rest of the changes are just improvements to quality of life: Written explanations of what actions do on the cards/player tiles. And Player Aids are included for everyone, so no need to pass the instruction manual around to sort out/remember what the icons mean. 
I prefer to play Tokaido at three players but you can do a version at two players by running a third Blocker character, with the person currently furthest along on the path moving that character when it ends up on it's turn. Playing with Four means that additional spaces are opened up at the various locations, giving everyone a bit more breathing room but five players brings it right back to that claustrophobic cozy feeling.
Tokaido is the original Cutthroat Cozy. Now, it has the extra layer of Cozy with how familiar I have become with it over the years. With the “plausible deniability” blocking and variable player abilities, It has enough interesting decisions that it falls into “I'd be happy to play if someone suggests it” section of my collection along with the crossover of “Easy to introduce to non-hobby gamers.”
A review copy of this release was provided by the publisher. Therewillbe.games would like to thank them for their support.
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