Another year, another trip to Japan. This time plans did not work out quite as I had planned but in the end I was able to go there after all!
This trip is going to be shorter than ever due to various reasons. Big thing being my next years plan which involves walking Shikoku pilgrimage. That requires so much time and money I had to scale down this years trip.
Shikoku pilgrimage will involve me walking around one of the four main islands in Japan. Assuming I manage to walk entire course I have planned, somewhat larger than minimum, it will result in about 1400 kilometers or so walk. This will be quite a physical challenge and have quite a bit of new things I haven't been doing like whole temple procedures. While I knew some part of it already there's parts of it I don't know and more importantly haven't been doing for real.
So lots of new things and physical challenge I have yet to try. Seemed like a good idea to have smaller practice run before the Shikoku pilgrimage. And that's how I ran into the Chichibu pilgrimage. Original plan had been multiple day hike in somewhere or maybe do part of the Shikoku pilgrimage but then while reading book about Japanese pilgrimages(which contained section of Shikoku) I discovered the three famous Kannon pilgrimages that form together 100-temple pilgrimage. Original one of those three is the Saigoku 33 temple pilgrimage. That involves 33 temples around center of main island of Japan including parts of Kyoto. All in all over 2000km distance...This being far from eastern Japan(including Tokyo or Edo as it was known then) it was quite hard for many to complete so another 33 temple pilgrimage was formed closer to Tokyo area but being well over 1000 km it was still quite tough one. So THIRD 33 temple pilgrimage was set up around Chichibu in current Saitama prefecture(close to Tokyo). Later 1 more temple was added to Chichibu, possibly to get the round 100 temples when combining above three temples.
All three pilgrimages are for Kannon Bodhisattva(I hope I got the spelling right) and the 33 temples comes from there being 33 shapes of Kannon mentioned in Lotus Suttra which he/she takes when helping people. Though curiously while main object of each temple IS Kannon same shape is repeated multiple times. Originally I thought all 33 shapes would be represented but that was wrong. Particularly common ones are the basic shape(shoukannon in japanese) and 11 faced Kannon.
So who or what is the Kannon? He/She is one of the Bodhisattvas in Buddhism lore and one of the most popular if not the most popular in Asia and in particular Japan. Kannon appears sometimes as male, sometimes as female(seems originally male but in China started to appear as female and Japan having got Buddhism via China followed in suit. Since Kannon is said to appear in different shape depending on person he/she helps that plays around to the belief). Bodhisattvas are basically those who have been able to archieve state they could reach Buddhahood/Nirvana but out of compassion for others have vowed to not enter that until everybody has archieved same. Kannon in particular is known for exemplifying compassion.
Above is extremely brief overview of the pilgrimage. I'll see if I'll write some more. Anyway original plan for this trip had been for spring around the time cherry trees were blooming but since at the work it seemed work could get very busy around that time and plane tickets were getting expensive it was decided to post pone trip until fall(november sounded like a good idea. Rather than cherry trees I would see autumn foliage). However as it turns out there was quiet period particularly for me but fall could be extremely busy so I started to wonder if I can even get the fall holiday! Then on last weeks thursday while chatting with work mate it occurred that now would be decent window to take small holiday and as it turned out plane tickets were quite cheap as well...So things moved suddenly so that 9 days later I would be leaving(30th april to be precise) for Japan.
I proposed somewhat shorter holiday than I had originally planned to sell the idea and to save cash in preparation for the Shikoku trip(doctor criticised what I eat generally as too little(?), too rarely and wrong types(including too small variety in vegetables. Amount good, variation too small) so I changed it but that's more expensive. I could still cover it but buffer for Shikoku was getting scarily small) so I have only 7 full days in Japan. This affected plans where originally I had planned to have 5 full days for the pilgrimage and 3 days either as reserve if I fail to make it in time or hike nearby mountains. Now I have 4 full days and 1 day when I need to return to Tokyo.
This is bit of a challenge timing wise. There's 34 temples to visit and overall distance(barring getting lost) is about 104 kilometers. Distance isn't too bad but spacing of temples is VERY inconvenient. First 29 temples cover mere 45 kilometers while last 5 temples cover rest!
This results in first 2 days(where I try to hit 25 temples. Incidentally verb in Japanese for visiting temple IS literally hit as in hit with a hammer. This stems from old tradition where using hammer pilgrims hammered in wooden name plate as proof of their visit. Nowadays paper slips have replaced it but the verb remains) I'm in quite a hurry trying to get all the temples I plan to hit. Quite possible I don't and in that case I jump ahead on 3rd day and do the last temples out of order. This is because on 5th day I need to head toward Tokyo so I don't want to wander away too far from station on last day least I miss them. So in the 5th and last day if I missed some temples on first 2 days I'll go them. If I DID get them all I could do some mountain hiking before going to Tokyo.
For place to sleep original plan had been stay in hotels near where I would be ending day but as the holiday ended up in Golden Week(basically all week long holiday in Japan) all hotels were fully booked. I was able to rent room in local people's homes(2 places). This means that day 3 and 4(and 5) starting points will be quite far so rather than walk there(takes time I don't really have) then I'll use taxi to get there(and back after finishing walk. After walking 33km or so I don't think I can do another 15km or so! Especially on reasonable time frame). Not quite how I planned but it will have to do. I'll be still carrying backbag though it's not technically required but good to get used to walking with about same as I'll be carrying in Shikoku(about 7kg or so).
After the 5th day I'll be heading to Tokyo to meet some friends. This time I won't be exploring Tokyo all that much(maybe not even see my favourite park!) and shopping won't be that easy to do for souvenirs. Only good news for that is that there's used bookstore close to the place I'll be camping in Chichibu. If there's coin lockers in nearby station to leave(heavy from books) bag for friday that should sort most of books I want to buy.
So there. Quick recap of my plans. Departure is on saturday, arrival on sunday, pilgrimage starts on monday. I don't know if I can do blogging every day or will I write entries after the holiday but I'll be posting daily notes and pictures sooner or later.
Ei kommentteja:
Lähetä kommentti