71998
One of my Japanese classmates was having a hard time understanding the phrase
"off the beaten track" and came to me for help. I told her that "beat" could
also be used as "to make a path", as in "a well-beaten track". It got through
to her eventually and she added that in Japanese they called it "a beast
road".

I should have asked her more about this "beast road" but somehow I wrapped it
up by simply saying "Ohh!Good to know!"
CC BY-SA 4.0
2019-09-21T16:21:21.323
71991
2019-09-22T05:58:23.857
35334
question
phrases
What is the Japanese word for a track beaten in the woods? "A beast road"?
As per the search results from JACK's comment, the _extremely literal_
translation of "beaten path" is:

> [踏]{ふ}みならされた[道]{みち}

where
[踏みならす](https://jisho.org/search/%E8%B8%8F%E3%81%BF%E3%81%AA%E3%82%89%E3%81%99)
is "beat" in the sense of making a path, and
[道](https://jisho.org/search/%E9%81%93) means road or path. That said, this is
not a saying in Japanese the same way it is in English. The metaphor may hold
up, but it's not going to be immediately familiar to anyone who hears it.

The word that your friend was talking about was almost certainly
[[獣道]{けものみち}](https://jisho.org/search/%E7%8D%A3%E9%81%93), which is just
[[獣]{けもの}](https://jisho.org/search/%E7%8D%A3)+[[道]{みち}](https://jisho.org/search/%E9%81%93).
The literal construction here is pretty much "beast road", but that perhaps
sounds more exciting than the natural English translation of "animal trail" or
"game trail". This word just means "trail made by wild animals" in both
English and Japanese though; it's pretty much the opposite of the "beaten
path".
CC BY-SA 4.0
2019-09-21T23:34:15.813
71997
2019-09-22T05:26:43.923
2019-09-22T05:26:43.923
9831
7705
71991
answer
I guess what she wants to say is called 「けもの道{みち}」.

It implies a road through areas such as forests, bushes, hills, etc. only wild
animals like boars, bears, mountain goats take.

In a metaphorical sense,
「[けもの道](https://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E3%81%91%E3%82%82%E3%81%AE%E9%81%93#%E6%AF%94%E5%96%A9%E3%81%A8%E3%81%97%E3%81%A6%E3%81%AE%E3%80%8C%E3%81%91%E3%82%82%E3%81%AE%E9%81%93%E3%80%8D)」
is used to describe an unusual lifestyle such as a life taking a risk other
people would not want to. Ex) being an entrepreneur, not choosing the career
path your friends usually go, teachers recommend, or a firm prepares, etc.
which is different from the road well-maintained.

"[Bushwalking](https://www.google.com/search?client=firefox-
b-d&q=bushwalking)" in Australia or "[Death
Road](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yungas_Road)" in Bolivia seems dangerous
to me, but normally there are tour-guides or fellow travelers with you. Again,
probably she wanted to describe the road which it seems no one has ever taken,
not well-maintained, savage, and so on.
CC BY-SA 4.0
2019-09-21T23:39:50.647
71998
2019-09-22T05:58:23.857
2019-09-22T05:58:23.857
-1
34735
71991
answer