Gordon: An elevation profile of the Shikoku pilgrimage looks like the ECG of the last few moments of a person’s life: mostly flat, but with random spasmodic spikes. In pilgrim parlance these climbs are known as “henro korogashi”: “where a pilgrim falls down”. Today, I braved the first of these climbs to go from Temple 11 to 12. I had walked 55 kms in ...
Ruth: We diligently recite the Heart Sutra at every temple. Our guide book provides the Sutra in phonetic Japanese, but I think I stand a better chance of enlightenment if I at least know what I am saying. Knowing, does not, however, mean understanding. After 11 tries it’s still not clear. We brought with us a a recent English translation of the Sutra written by ...
Gordon: We had beautiful weather for our first day on the Shikoku 88 Temple pilgrimage. We made our way to Temple 1 under our own power, adding about 14 kms to the distance of about 13 kms from Temple 1 to Temple 5. With 83 more temples to visit our appreciation of them may diminish, but we enjoyed the first five a great deal. They ...
Waiting for the train with my bike in its suitcase. Ruth: Our travel day from our guest house near Kansai airport to Shikoku was seamless and surprisingly easy. Our host dropped us back at the Ozaki train station where we bought a combination train and ferry ticket to Tokushima. I spent the two hour ferry ride talking to a lovely lady in a combination of ...
Gordon: We arrived at Kansai airport around midday yesterday. This is one of several airports that service Ōsaka, but it is notable for being located on its own island in the sea. It is connected to the mainland by a five kilometre causeway with a highway and a rail line, but no apparent pedestrian path. The various staff at the airport were very helpful and ...