Shikoku Henro Pilgrimage

While in Shikoku I learned about a pilgrimage that people make to visit 88 of the temples on the island. It is believed that the Buddhist monk Kobo Daishi visited them all and that doing so can bring the pilgrim good luck and/or remove bad spirits. The pilgrims are called Ohenrosan ("O" being an honorific, "Henro" being the pilgrim, and "san" a title like Mr./Ms./Mrs.). The long trip was traditionally made on foot but today people are using vehicles to do it quicker.

It is a belief held in Japan that the 42nd year (41 years old) for men and the 32nd year (31 years old) for women is a bad year. A Shikoku pilgrimage is a way for people to try to minimize the bad spirits that they have at those ages. Being currently in my 42nd year, this was a great opportunity to make my own pilgrimage! Unfortunately, I was on a bus tour where I couldn't dictate to stop at each temple so I had to make due as I could.

Here's an old photo that I found on the internet that shows some Henro:

The whole pilgrimage is steeped in tradition. From the outfit that is worn to what you do at each temple is set. For example, on the trip around the island you'll see many Henro walking to the next temple along the road. You can spot them easily due to their white clothes, straw hats (sugegasa), walking sticks, and bags. This illustration shows the traditional outfit, which is still commonly used today:


Pilgrimages are not just made by men and women of a set age. You'll see all types of people out walking. All are doing it for different reasons but some common ones are when someone wants a special wish granted, good luck in a new venture, a change of fortune, and so on. Also, the clothes that people choose to wear can be flexible too. I found this picture showing the variety of people and clothes that you might see (maybe the guy on the right is from the U.S. as we're the only ones who wear shorts when traveling???):


Along with the clothes, the ritual that is performed at each temple, tradition says, must be done exactly the same. If, for example, you buy a candle and donate 100 yen at the first, you must repeat this at each temple you visit. As I mentioned, I was on a bus that wasn't stopping at each temple so I had to do what I could. :-) Each time the guide told us we were passing one of the temples, I did a small, seated bow and waved my right hand towards the temple. I'm not sure if this will qualify for completing the pilgrimage but I figure it can't hurt.

Oh yeah, I (sorta') did the Shikoku Henro Pilgrimage and I DID get the shirt! Are you jealous yet?

Shikoku Bus Tour

Hmm... Organized bus tours... I'd say they're really not my cup of tea...but...here I was on a bus with 45 Japanese people taking a four-day, 900-plus-mile (1500km) tour. The tour bus left from Osaka and set out to drive the perimeter of Shikoku island (shown in pink), which is a large island west, southwest of Osaka:


It was interesting to be with the large group for a few days. I managed to get some laughs out of them several times during the trip just by being the goofy foreign guy. Here's the group at one of our first stops. Note the guide/leader with the flag at the front of the line:


Shikoku means "four countries" (they were formerly independent kingdoms but are now prefectures) and is the smallest and least populated of the four main Japanese islands. It's probably best known in Japan for its famous 88-temple pilgrimage, which I'll write about in my next post. As with a lot of the coastline of Japan that I've seen (that isn't port), Shikoku had lots of pretty beaches and great views. The bus stopped at several over the course of the trip. Of all the pictures I took of the beaches, I ended up liking this one of a small island with the Torii gate. Very peaceful and very relaxing.


Towards the end of the first day, we stopped in Aki, which has several famous folks counted among it's current and former residents. This is the house where Yataro Iwasaki grew up. He was the founder of the company that eventually became the Mitsubishi Group.


The morning of day two found us visiting a Ryoma Sakamoto statue in Kochi. Ryoma is a interesting and impressive guy. To a great extent, he was responsible in the mid-1800s for the push to modernize Japan away from its feudal past. Ryoma's also credited with being the mentor of Iwasaki (above) while the two lived in Nagasaki as well as being the first Japanese person (along with his wife) to go on a honeymoon. He's pretty much everywhere in Japan right now (especially in Shikoku, Nagasaki, and Kyoto where he lived for at least a little while) partially due to a current, super-popular TV series. I have a few pictures of me behind various Ryoma cardboard cut outs (the ones where you stick your face through a hole where the character's face should be). In a more respectable way, here I am in front of the statue:


Later, during the second day, we stopped for a boat ride on the Shimanto river, which is the longest river in Shikoku. The river apparently periodically floods so they've built many of the bridges that cross it with no railings to reduce the likelihood that they'll wash away. It was interesting, to say the least, to watch cars drive across them. The boat guide/driver was full of old-guy jokes and the brief ride ended up being fun. Here are some of my bus mates on the boat:


Our next-to-last stop on day two was in Ashizuri, which is famous for another native son. In 1841, a fisherman was shipwrecked near the area and a passing American whaling ship picked him up. The man, who was later known as John Manjiro, became the first Japanese person to visit America. He lived there for about ten years eventually returning during Japan's closed period when doing so resulted in death. Manjiro not only was spared execution on his return but ended up serving as the official translator (as the only Japanese person who also spoke English) when Admiral Perry's black ships forced Japan to open itself up to the world.

We stopped at this underwater viewing spot. You pay about $5 U.S. to enter then walk down about 40 steps to look out at some local fish while the staff feeds them from above. It's not super exciting but it was definitely different. By the way, it's a pretty strange looking thing (the building too):


Day three's stops included one at a mountain-top wind farm that had some nice ocean views. I've been to other wind farms but the sound the blades make as they spin is always surprising.


The afternoon stop was in Uchiko town, which is located towards the western end of Shikoku. It used to be a wealthy town that was famous for wax and paper manufacturing. The main street has been preserved to look as it did during the town's peak about 100 years ago.


I came across this poster for kid's sumo wrestling, which I thought was funny and cute:


Near the old area of Uchiko is this large statue of a sleeping buddha, which, apparently, appears on no tourist information about the town, including the English map that I picked up. The perspective of this photo doesn't really show you how big the statue is. My guess is that his feet alone are about four-feet long. It's pretty big...


Our last day was spent mostly driving across northern Shikoku back to Osaka. The highlight of the day (and one of the highlights of the trip) was a visit to the Konpira shrine. This beautifully located shrine is on a forested hill at the end of the approximately 1,800 steps that it takes to reach. It's quite a hike and I noticed that only the heartiest of the bus group made the trek to the top. Here's the view not too far from the top:


The bus tour ended up being lots of fun even though I really couldn't understand most of what was said by the guide. It was definitely a great chance to spend some time with some locals and see a part of Japan that I probably wouldn't have ever gotten to see otherwise.

Fiesta Mexicana - Osaka

Yes, that title is correct. I attended a honest-to-goodness Mexican fiesta right here in the heart of Osaka, Japan. When I heard about the event I thought for about 0.2 seconds before I decided that I needed to go. Up to this point I had only seen two things in my life that combined Mexico and Japan. The first was a Mexican-Japanese taco shop in Santa Ana, California where you could buy a chicken-teriyaki burrito. The other is my friend Enrique who is Mexican-American, spent some time in Osaka as a college student, and speaks Japanese. He liked the combination so much that he even went so far as to get a Japanese wife so that he could make a few Mexi-Japanese kids. :-)

The fiesta was pretty standard fare. They had a stage set up at one end where folklorico dancing and live music was taking place:


At the back end of the seating area were some food stands that were run by a couple of local Mexican restaurants. This one was called Tacos El Nopal and was owned by a Mexican expat woman:


...and the menu:


As a reference, tacos cost about $5 U.S. (4 euros) and burritos were about $8.50 U.S. (7 euros). In other words, expensive like pretty much everything in Japan but definitely worth the money as the green salsa they had was incredible. I definitely want to go check out the restaurant now.

The event was held in the central plaza of the Umeda Sky Building, which itself is a local landmark that I had wanted to visit. The buildings have a cool roof-top observation deck and tube-shaped escalators between the two towers. Here's a shot from the ground:


This is a shot I took from inside the escalator tube looking towards the other tube and the ground. It's kinda' hard to show in the photo how cool it feels to be riding up an escalator between two buildings while being so high off the ground.


The view from the roof-top deck is awesome. Since the building is one of the tallest in Osaka, you can see pretty much everything in the area. This is the view towards the direction where I'm living. If you want to get really detailed, I'm living about two blocks from the tan building just to the left of and way behind the building with the domed/curved roofs that's just in the center of the photo. Good luck...


The highlight of the event was the performance by a (small) mariachi band from Mexico. They played a couple of the classics like Cielito Lindo. Every time I see mariachis live I hope that they play Mariachi Loco, which is my favorite. These guys delivered for me! Here they are during "my" song:


What can I say? Yep. Pretty strange combo for sure but definitely a fun day. Mariachi loco quiere bailar! マリアッチ・ロコ・キエレ・バイラー!!!