Steps: 30.848 (26,8km)
Temples: 54 + 55
Today we started off at Iyo-Kameoka by the sea where we left off yesterday. We had only a small portion of the official route left, and so we took our time and made plenty of small stops along the way.
When we walked by a small shop I couldn’t help but notice the … Read more
I recently spoke to a colleague about our trip and he mentioned, that he himself had walked the Camino a few years back. He spoke very fondly of the trip, saying he would never forget it and that it was one of the best things he had ever done. He also mentioned how whenever he put on his backpack from … Read more
Every time I think about writing for this blog, I get overwhelmed with all the things that are happening. I want to write stuff that is useful or interesting, but honestly preparing for a trip like this also requires a lot of checking things off of lists. So here’s a list of some of the little things that make up … Read more
… and after having been closed for more than two years, today Japan is finally re-opening it’s borders to tourists.
This means that we can finally re-start our mental and physical preparations for the trip, which has now been put on hold for well over a year.
We have known about this news for a couple of weeks of … Read more
A snapshot in time: We’re nearing the end of 2021, but not, as it seems, the end of March 2020. Omikron is raging havoc on both a global and local scale, and as much as I felt sorry for the people having to postpone special celebrations during the initial lockdown almost two years (two years!) ago I am … Read more
This end of August marks the time for our originally planned departure for Japan. While many choose to do the pilgrimage in spring, enjoying Japan’s spectacular cherry blossoms, we planned instead for a (supposedly) less crowded fall foliage experience. A late-August/early-September departure would have meant starting just as the hurricane season came to an end. Similarly, we hoped that the … Read more
A quick side note before we start. This post was originally supposed to be about how I have started practicing Japanese on Duolingo in preparation for our trip. However, as you will see it quickly spiralled into something quite different and much more personal. I hope it will inspire you as it did me.
… Read more“Losers have goals. Winners have systems.”
During our summer holiday this year we went to a cabin in the woods west of Trollhättan in southern Sweden. The cabin has been in Jonas’s family for many years and we have been coming there almost every year since we started dating. The cabin and the surrounding area is one of my favourite places on Earth. A perfect place … Read more
How does one prepare for a 1300 km walk? Or, to be more precise, how does one prepare to hike 1300km though mountainous terrain when the furthest they have ever walked is 10 km in one of the flattest countries on Earth?
One year ago, when it slowly became apparent that we were in fact going to go through with … Read more
Five years ago when we first arrived in Shikoku it was more by chance than by design. Against everybody’s advice we had rented a car in Japan and were heading south in the hope of encountering some warmer weather and a change of scenery from Osaka’s seemingly endless cityscape.
I don’t remember if I knew of any pilgrimage prior to … Read more
