New Zealand is not Real!
Well, physically it exists, but at times it takes a bit of convincing to believe that what you are looking at is indeed a tangible place. Since all things Peter Jackson and LOTR, a lot of attention has been played to this formally little visited island nation 2000 kms east of Australia; and the tourists have indeed come.
Returning to south west Europe for us is never hard. Not sure if it is the richness of the food, the onslaught of the ridiculously cheap wine, the beautiful landscapes or the ancientness of it’s villages, but it’s fast becoming a tradition of ours to spend our June walking a portion of the Camino de Santiago in this corner of the world. This June was no different as we set out on the Camino Portuguese to both spread the good word of Ohenro and to get a little bit of pilgrimage in us ourselves. 360km, 12 full days of walking, whiningwineing to the western most tip of continental Europe, Finisterre.
Repeater guest, Kochi stalwart and all around good guy, Bear, hosted a really great live event at the guesthouse last weekend, May 10th. His collection of ceramics really blew everyone away and he ended up selling quite a few pieces. We also had the awesome deal where if you bought a cup, you received a 15% discount on all drinks for the night-as you would expect, many people took us up on the offer.
Nori and I just got back from a really nice 5-day break where we went to Sapporo, Kiroro resort and Osaka. Since coming to Japan 5 years ago, I’ve always wanted to go experience Hokkaido, both in the winter and in the summer. And though the summer trip will have to wait for another day, the winter version just had its first installment.
Incense streaming past statues and worshipers alike, a crowd of O-henro (pilgrims) chant the hannya shingyo, or heart sutra, in eerie unison. Eyes turned downward, hands clutching prayer beads, every single one hoping their prayers and devotion will reach the inner recess of the temple where Kobo Daishi is said to reside. People come to the 88 temple pilgrimage around the island of Shikoku for a myriad of reasons; some looking for forgiveness, some to honor a commitment to a deceased family member, some merely looking to experience the beauty of Shikoku. I came to this centuries old Buddhist pilgrimage hoping to gain a foothold into my past, and insight into my future. Strapped with only a backpack, guidebook and a sense of adventure, I calmly took my first step into what turned out to be a life-changing experience.
Last week, we were invited by the fine people of Forest Canyoning to go sliding, bouldering, waterfall climbing, rappelling and cliff jumping in the spectacular Nametoko gorge in south west Ehime.
It was probably the most adrenaline-filled thing I have done in Japan.
The 50th largest island by area in the world, Shikoku is smaller than Sardinia and Bananal, but larger than Halmahera and Seram. At 18,000 sq kms, spatially, it really isn’t that big, but being completely mountainous, driving anywhere is particularly time consuming. Breathtaking, but time consuming.
Using a couple of rare days off for us, we decided to see some parts of southern Ehime/western Kochi that we haven’t been to before. Our first stop was Shikoku Karst.
We had 2 live music events last weekend…both super interesting, both very different; needless to say a good time was had by all.
On Friday the 13th (spooky) we had a duo from Spain that played Klezmer music, which is Eastern European Jewish music that is usually played at celebrations such as marriages. 2 days earlier, they also played to a packed house in the very atmospheric wanitosai.
