Planning To Walk The Kyushu 88 Temple Pilgrimage In Japan
Planning To Walk The Kyushu 88 Temple Pilgrimage In Japan
It has been a long time since I posted on my blog.
Life as always, has continued to be exciting and full of adventures, but I simply did not take the time to pause and share my thoughts.
Sharing your life, thoughts and adventures online is a mixed bag of support by the few who also aim to live lives full of meaning and challenges, but mostly it draws tremendous jealousy from people who believe they cannot afford a life full of adventures, for a variety of reasons.
I found that living my life and not sharing my ideas, brought about a period of calm and quiet.
But one day I read the story of a young man who disappeared while in the Himalayas. He was probably killed by a deranged pseudo holy man, with whom he lived.
This holy man was more of a Chillum smoking madman, whom the locals avoided.
In his diary, the young seeker wrote that he was constantly torn between wanting to share his adventures, and fearing that others would be jealous of him.
This was a bit if a wake-up call for me.
If a penniless young man sleeping in dank caves where he could not even stand, without clean water or food, thought that others were envious of him, then there must be something terribly wrong with this way of thinking…
I decided right then to start sharing again, and to keep it up.
Summer this year in the mountains of Colorado has been a hot one.
Luckily, the early morning hours are pleasantly cool, and we woke up early, in order to run or swim before the heat made the days too hot to enjoy the outdoors.
We are motivated to stay in shape, because we decided that this autumn we will walk the lesser known Kyushu 88 temple pilgrimage, spread around the island of Kyushu in Japan.
Not to be confused with the famous Shikoku 88 temple pilgrimage on Shikoku island, the Kyushu 88 is a much longer pilgrimage of more than 2000 kilometers.
It is difficult to train for a walking pilgrimage.
We simply cannot start walking all day long with a backpack in order to condition our bodies and minds to be walking outdoors all day.
We will have to adjust to walking all day every day, and get stronger while on the road.
We do go out for a 5 km run about three to four times per week, which I hope will help us during the adjustment period.
This pilgrimage is a part of a larger and much longer trip.
For the first time in our lives, we plan to travel for eight months around Asia.
The trip will include diving in multiple locations in different countries, much like we did last year during our six month trip, but this year we will be going for a longer period of time.
So why share our adventures?
I think that every person who is planning to go on a challenging journey likes to research how to do it, and to get some insights into what to expect and what to avoid.
This is why people buy guidebooks and read travel blogs. We know that adventures like these are full of surprises and daily challenges, and it gives us some comfort if we can demystify the journey just a little bit.
Well, there is almost nothing available online or in print in English about this pilgrimage.
I heard of one man who did the whole pilgrimage on foot, but when I contacted him, he told me that he had kept a daily log, but that his blog company was later sold and then closed down.
Most people do this pilgrimage by car or by train, because the distances are too great for people to take the time out of their work and social lives.
But through the years we have walked several long pilgrimages, and I can feel the call of the open road in my heart, calling me to come and tread over these mountains and hills, promising insights and self growth along the way…..
With blessings,
Tali
The photos above are from my recent diving trip in Sri Lanka
