MEANINGFUL TRAVEL | HENRO | PILGRIMAGES IN JAPAN | SHIKOKU88
By SENSEISTEVE88 November 2023
'A change in latitude would change my attitude' - Unknown
In 2003, many years before Sophie (aka THE CAT) was born, the Narrator ventured to distant shores during an existential crisis triggered by 'love-gone-wrong'.
Two decades later he became a grandfather (dubbed 'Sensei Steve'), and officially became a Shikoku 88 Henro. This is the story of how I became a Henro, will always be a Henro, and my first experience of the great circular pilgrimage.
Mainstream society might call it a 'mid-life crisis'.
In my 39th year, with 2 young children and an established marriage, it just wasn't 'happening'. That constant, nagging, existential angst was forever represented by the little voice on my shoulder chirping, 'What if? Is there more? Are you being YOU? In fact, 'WHO ARE YOU?'
I was sick of saying, 'GO AWAY, I'm doing the RIGHT things ... I'm doing what is EXPECTED of me!
Wife - TICK;
Children - TICK;
Health - TICK;
Career - TICK;
Yada yada yada.
Happiness - OUCH;
Authenticity - Lol!
Enlightenment - YIKES;
The Gumby from Monty Pythons Flying Circus knew exactly how I felt ... my brain hurt!
I'm a firm believer, now, that you are just in the right place at the right time. Put differently, 'whether things be great or awful YOU ARE WHERE YOU'RE MEANT TO BE'. Very Buddhist. And so it was that I found myself ... wandering aimlessly.
I dropped my kids to school after one of my limited (at that stage) access visits on a Monday morning, and drove to a nearby shopping centre ... half an hour before it was due to open. Totally unintentional. It was almost as though the car was driving itself. Before I knew it, I had parked outside a travel agents office on the outside of the centre (my first thought was coffee!). Within 20 minutes my life reached a massive fork in the road and I had to choose Left or Right?
I got out of the car and began looking in the travel agent's window. Group tours by the bucketload. Buses, buses, and more buses. But one organised tour jumped out at me. Backroads-of-Japan. A guided walking/hiking tour that followed old pilgrim trails between Japan's 3 historical Capitals. Tokyo (modern Capital), Kyoto (cultural Capital), Asuka (ancient Capital). Bing! Instant interest. There is a history here (more later) ...
Fushimi Inari Taisha Sembon Torii (Thousand Torii Gates) Kyoto, Japan
Then there was a knocking on the INSIDE of the window! An agent had seen me looking and caught my attention ... well before opening hours. She invited me in (despite my admission that I was genuinely a 'tyre-kicker') and provided additional detail about the Backroads-of-Japan tour. The current one (Autumn/Fall in Japan) was booked out but there was another in 6 months time. Cool I thought, probably be in a better headspace by then, maybe? And then it happened ... the phone rang.
Hey. Happy Monday. Yep. OK. Really? Aha. Hold on a moment ...
A participant on the current BoJ tour, part of a triple-share booking, needed to pull out and the organiser was letting travel agents know that they were looking for a replacement. 'You wont believe what I am about to tell you', my new friend says (holding her hand over the mouthpiece). 'Want to go to Japan for 3 weeks leaving next week?' 'Why not?', I reply! That was late in 2003. I paid my $ and left the centre ... before it opened. Later that day I was advised that I had received a disbursement from a relatives deceased estate which matched, to the nearest $100, the amount that I had paid that morning for the tour. Spooky right?
So now I was going on an unplanned overseas trip, sharing accommodation with 2 total strangers, my ex-wife would be livid in the middle of a divorce and custody battle, my kids would think I had abandoned them, I had no leave approved. This was clearly a good idea, right?!
No, this was fate/destiny/synchronicity ... something I didn't believe in back then.
'The notoriously shy' Mount Fuji, is unbelievably beautiful when she reveals herself.
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