Shikoku

Are we ready for another pilgrimage?
What?  You say we haven't done the full Camino de Santiago yet?
But a night or two ago we watched the PBS Sacred Journeys episode on Shikoku and strolling through the Japanese countryside sounds delightful.  PBS has the whole episode for you to watch on its website, at least for the moment.  The Shikoku pilgrimage is a bit more challenging than the Camino Frances because it is 750 miles (not 500) around the island of Shikoku, visiting 88 Buddhist temples, many of them where Kobo Daishi, the Buddhist monk who brought Buddhism to the Japanese masses in the 9th century, studied and trained.  They say allow 45 days to complete it if you are walking, but many Japanese complete the pilgrimage by car, train or bus.  Below is a map of the island from the RandomWire blog by David, an English software engineer living in Japan who did the pilgrimage on foot last year.

He set off from Tokyo and began his walk May 1st, the same day of the year that we seem to begin our pilgrimages.  Like us because of International Labor Day, he was "slightly nervous about finding accommodation given that it’s golden week".  The night he arrived he had a "deliciously healthy dinner" and the first day of walking he had "an exceedingly healthy breakfast".  But alas, no photos of the meals although they must have been vegetarian.

(nokyocho 納経帳)

David has lots of photos and information in his day by day account of the pilgrimage and since he knows Japanese, he adds Japanese names with Japanese characters.  He also must have a fitness monitor since he lists his total steps for the day (1st day: 29,400 steps).  Juan would like the pilgrimage because at each temple they sign and stamp your pilgrimage journal (nokyocho 納経帳) and as you can see, it is a work of art.

 One can also tour Shikoku by train with a Shikoku Rail Pass but the lines don't exactly follow the pilgrimage route.  The Shikoku District Transit Bureau has a helpful website in English with bus routes you can follow to the 88 temples.  Tourism Shikoku, the official tourism guide for Shikoku, has information in English with a brochure on the henro (pilgrim) trail as well as information on the food (including markets), accommodations, etc. and brochures and maps on the various cities and sites of the island.


One of the sites they recommend is Dojo Hot Spring, upon which the animated movie "Spirited Away" is supposedly based.  I can see that one would have to do a lot of planning for a trip to this island.  And we better brush up on our Japanese...