Let’s try this again

Hi, everyone. ๐Ÿ™‚

I’m going back to Japan for 2 months, and this โ€” my blog from my 2 years on the JET Program a decade ago โ€” seems like the perfect venue for chronicling my travels.

Shikoku, Japan
Source: Wikimedia

This time around, I’m doing the Shikoku 88-temple pilgrimage: a ~750-mile circuit of the 4th-largest island of Japan (the one where I lived). I have about 6.5 weeks to do as much as I can, from February 27 to mid-April. Preferably I want to walk as much as I can, but I’m not athletic enough and I haven’t trained enough, so trains/buses/taxis will also factor in.

It’s been a shamefully long time since I’ve written anything longform, so I’m a bit rusty. I also don’t know if I’ll feel up to writing regularly, due to how physically strenuous the trip will be (and because typing on an iPad is a pain). I’ll have a physical journal/sketchbook with me, so that, combined with Twitter and Instagram, may make this into a low-key transmedia storytelling experience. And I aim to augment these posts with a map describing where I am.

As a user experience designer, there’s some expectation of a clean, well-designed blog representing myself…and this won’t be that. Form follows function, right? And this will be largely functional. I want to document my experience, first and foremost.

Anyway, it’s less than 48 hours until I depart for Tokyo. From Tokyo I’ll fly to Takamatsu, the 2nd-largest city on Shikoku, and spend the night in Tokushima City before starting the pilgrimage the following morning. The first few temples are in the town of Naruto (yes, I do believe the anime character is named after it), ~30 minutes north.

Shikoku pilgrimage temples
Source: pamnjeff.com

The route will be flexible. I’ll go largely in order โ€” there are some points where going out-of-order makes the route shorter and more manageable โ€” in a clockwise circuit around the island. I’ll figure out where I’m staying each night as I go. This isn’t a camping trip; while there may be a few nights where I sleep more-or-less outdoors, largely I’ll aim to stay in inns and whichever temples offer lodging.

And I’ll be sure to report on the experience of being a vegetarian hiker, and a nonwhite hiker, and potentially a nonwhite female hiker (intersectionality, etc.). Living in Japan as a vegetarian isn’t so bad if you have a kitchen…which I won’t.

For now, back to packing and prepping; the decade since I last updated this site hasn’t seen me become any less of a procrastinator. ๐Ÿ™‚

One Reply to “Let’s try this again”

  1. Hey Smitha, I am Stรฉphane, we met a couple of times while living in Tokushima. I was in Anan. Where is the rest of this!?! I can’t beleive you went back to walk the temples a couple years ago! I am planning a return in 1 or 2 years and want to do the pilgrimage! Was hoping to see how it went! Did you document your trip anywhere else? Cheers!

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