Shikoku Pilgrimage Websites

I'm posting here a few of the good informative websites I have found for the Shikoku Pilgrimage.

Wikipedia has a great description.
The Shikoku Henro Trail site has great information and links.
This is one of my favorite Travelogues that gives a nice day by day picture of life on the Henro trail.
Here is another Travelogue by someone who did the trip by bicycle.

I love this picture from the Wikipedia site that shows how a Shikoku pilgrim dresses for the trip. I will be flying directly from Tokyo to London after the pilgrimage and I have to wonder what the people in London will think of my hat when I get off the plane!  

 

Amy Chavez has written a fascinating book about her adventures while running the pilgrimage.  It is called, Running the Shikoku Pilgrimage, 900 Miles to Enlightenment. It's my favorite Shikoku Pilgrimage story because it is of the same spirit as the way I plan to do the walk.  I am a runner and I love the idea of running at least some parts of it.  So for that reason, I am going to carry the lightest pack I can possibly get away with.

I also have the Shikoku Japan 88 Route Guide That I bought directly from David Moreton.  This English language guidebook tells me almost everything I need to know for the trip.

 

I just ordered the Kindle book The Way of the 88 Temples: Journeys on the Shikoku Pilgrimage By Sibley.  I do have the hard copy of the book at home, but it is nice to also have the electronic version with me here at work on my iPad and iPhone.   



iPhone Posting

I have been reading all of the fascinating online travelogues about the Shikoku Pilgrimage plus all of the books I can find. I have learned so much from the experiences of others that way. I hope that I will be able to make a similar contribution myself just using my iPhone. This particular post is really just a test to see if I can really do that.

I love the Japanese Buddhist temples. Here is my favorite one in the US, the gorgeous Byodo-in in Hawaii.

Byodo-in Hawaii

Preparations

A few months ago I signed up to run the Eco Slow Marathon in Inba Japan. Last year after walking the wonderful Camino de Santiago through Spain, I did a little research to see if there were other similar spiritual pilgrimages in fascinating places around the world. Japan is one of my favorite places on earth so when I discovered the 88 Temple Pilgrimage on the island of Shikoku, I decided that I needed to move it high on my future to do list.  Since I planned to run the marathon in Inba and have plenty of free time, April 2014 seems to be the perfect time to fulfill this dream.