Sharing Kirin with 3 henro-san and an endearing 72-year-old hostess is probably the best way to end a journey on the Shikoku pilgrimage.  Today equaled 2 temples, 3 wiener dogs, 7 annoying crows waking me up at 5:30 from my picturesque lodging (tent), 1 tsue (walking stick) broken, 1 ofuro taken, 4 cups of coffee, 6 questionnaires, 14 km walked, and a lot of awkward conversations.  Tomorrow will be our last day of walking; hopefully the numbers will match up.

I’m very ready to take that long airplane ride across the pacific to stop in Seattle on my way home.  Only two weeks and I already miss the stereotypical American things (open spaces, Sunday intramural softball, and, most of all, cereal).  I also can’t wait to see Ruth again, I very much wished she could have joined me on this trip.  The tent was meant for a single person, but I bet we could have made it work.

I’ve added a few more pictures and some bits to the research section.  Feel free to browse.   Ready to return to begin the real work of making sense of the data and my experiences.

Day 11 and we’ve made it to 85.  We’re taking it slow from here in order to finish 88 on Friday.  This way I can prolong the time we spend at each temple collecting data.  Ordinarily we do 20 km days, but the next few will be around 15.  It’s a nice change of pace, especially because we’ve climbed two large mountains near yashima-konko.  Holding out for some good weather and questionnaire-filled days.  Realizing now that I am asking favors of strangers in a foreign language (3 strikes against me) I’m fairly content with the work I’ve done.  I’ve been turned down, sometimes rudely (though I feel fairly rude in asking persons to spend 15 minutes of their time without compensation), and keep ganbatte – ing (doing my best).  Knowing that my time in Japan is limited has really helped in this endeavor.  Only 2 days left, for better or worse.

oyasuminasai (you must take a break)

I’m sitting safely in a minshuku tonight with Eric and Dave; I finally caved after the recent typhoon soaked all of my clothing.  We just finished a big meal with some Kirin and soaking in the onsen.  I feel like a million bucks after the last week without showering.  We have very comfy-looking futons (the traditional type) to sleep on and are watching a combination of kids anime and something like Letterman’s Stupid Human Tricks.  Everything is hanging to dry and my over-sized pack is airing out.  It’s a refreshing way to rejuvenate and prepare for another week of camping.

Today we walked a fairly steep climb that was made more difficult by the continuous flow of water that covered the trails.  Apparently the rains caused some damage in the Shikoku area including mud-slides over parts of the trail we were walking today.  We did have the chance to stop for some coffee and ice-cream midway through the day, however, which was nice after picking over the trails.

I was able to get 2 more questionnaires collected today, and nearly was able to get a whole bus-full of o-henro-san (if I can do this about twice all my questionnaires will be complete).  Unfortunately, however, the bus was going the opposite direction and so we wouldn’t have been able to pickup the questionnaires and make the minshuku in time.  If I get the opportunity again, however, I’ll probably end up splitting with Dave and Eric to pursue it.

O-yasume, everyone.  I added some pictures to this blog as well (see bottom right).

四国遍路道 (Shikoku Pilgrim Trail)

Sorry for my digital absence; as it would turn out, the pilgrimage (as well as much of Shikoku island) does not have very wide-spread internet access.  Also, because I have been nojyuko (lit: sleeping in the open air), I’ve been mostly away from electricity (and soap for that matter).

A lot has happened since I arrived, a very hilly-looking up and down experience.  There’s too much to say in a single post, so I’ll just provide a few highlights and expound with some additional posts when the opportunity presents itself.

After arriving, I met up with Dave and Eric.  Dave is in his mid 40′s (Dave if I’m exaggerating here please don’t hesitate to 嘘 me) and is pretty much fluent in speaking Japanese and in reading kanji, which just amazes me.  Eric is much tanner and skinnier than the last time I saw him (about 3 months ago), but is still his insightful talkative self.

Much of my time has been spent in awe at the beauty and intricacy of the temples and surrounding countryside.  Spending much of my time in Tokyo when I was here in 2008, I didn’t have too many opportunities to view anything other than cityscape.  Now, in sleeping on mountainsides, under lean-to’s, in garages, and in a tent, I’ve gotten a much better sense of the atmosphere and pace of natural Japan.  It is slow.  So much slower than Tokyo would suggest, and slower still than in the U.S.  People and places don’t communicate urgency in the way I anticipated, and it is refreshing. Refreshing even though I feel always slightly damp and dirty due to the humidity and lack of showering.

The temples have been amazing (I will upload the numerous pictures I have been taking once back home), and, coupled with Eric’s depth of knowledge about Buddhism and Dave’s knowledge of the language and culture of Japan, have been very enjoyable to visit and learn from.  The pilgrims themselves have all been extremely nice (even when refusing to take my questionnaire) and seem open to speaking with a foreigner in semi-functional Japanese.

I’ve gone from north Shikoku (temples 67-77) with Eric and Dave on foot and south Shikoku (temples 44-58) with three Japanese 20-40 year old’s by futuristic luxury hatchback.  The south Shikoku experience is (like the car we traveled in) difficult to describe.  It was at once positive (speaking with persons who knew zero English and being toted around as a sort of foreign novelty) and negative (realizing I was in the middle of nowhere with three relative strangers).  The last part was a bit scary when I realized the person I was traveling with had his own ideas about how I should conduct my research (by waiting between temple 88 and temple 1) and was not willing to drop me off where I needed to go.  Luckily, however, we were able to compromise and I met up again with Dave and Eric at temple 76.

Right now, according to my laptop, it is 4:57 am.  But according to Japan it is 18:58 (6:58pm).  I’m not sure who to trust at this point, because I certainly can’t rely on my internal sense of time.  I’ve been sleeping at odd hours (in the middle of sitting on the temple steps at 11:30am) and feeling rested at 3 o’clock in the morning.  I’m currently resting in a small wooden shelter built specifically for walking pilgrims.  It even has a little basket someone made containing kleenex packets and a note to use them.  This is the high-life.  It doesn’t feel entirely pilgrimage-esque, however, because it’s about 2 feet away from a major road that has tiny Japanese cars zipping noisily by every few seconds.

As I prepare for the night’s nojuku, I’m really quite excited to continue the last week I have here.  I’ll do my best to learn and study what I can so that I can impart what knowledge I gain through research and practice.

Departure!

Ruth and I will drive up to Minneapolis this evening at 5 so that I can depart from the Minneapolis aiport tomorrow (Saturday) morning at 9:30am.   We’ll be staying with a counseling cohort’s sister, who has graciously allowed us her living room floor for the evening.

I’ll have a single layover in Seattle and then land in the great sinking airport, Kansai, at 4pm on Sunday.  At the airport I’ll want to exchange cash for yen (Japan is still very much a paper money economy), with an exchange rate of 81 .9 yen to the dollar.  This is much, much lower than the 109 yen to dollar rate that I got in 2008.  I anticipated that the exchange rate, with the recent earthquake, to favor the dollar, but it looks like the earthquake had the reverse effect, with the dollar being at its weakest only a week after March 11th (someone more familiar with global economics will need to explain this to me!).

The plan is to then take the 17:20 bus from Kansai (I must again get used to military time!) to arrive at Tokushima station at 20:50 (8:50pm).  I’ll set up camp somewhere near Tokushima and then take the 7am train to Iyo-Mishima Station near temple 65.  Here I’ll meet up with David Turkington, our guide, and Eric Waite, fellow grad student in religious studies, to begin my portion of the walk.

I’ve finished packing the necessary essentials (e.g. 20+ protein bars due to my 30 lbs. weight-loss last time I was there), and am now focused on the research element of the trip.  I’ve laminated the most crucial documents, and will be approaching persons along the pilgrimage to ask for their time.  This is a little concerning, but I’ve been told that, because we’ll share the common bond of walking the pilgrimage, persons might be more willing to offer the 20 or so minutes to complete the questionnaire.  My research heavily relies on the generosity of strangers.  Luckily my experiences with the Japanese have been overwhelmingly positive and welcoming.

As I continue to discover more information through analysis of the questionnaires, I’ll be posting thoughts, conclusions, and findings in the research page.

Next time I post should be from Japan!

Images of the Pilgrimage

The only large-size decent map of the Shikoku Pilgrimage is ironically in German.  Still…. looking at pictures like the one below are awe-inspiring.                 

I can’t wait!

henro ni narimasu (becoming a henro)

The time is quickly slipping by, and the need to prepare myself for the trip is becoming more salient.  I’ve finished finals for coursework in vocational counseling, multicultural counseling, and a pre-practicum, and so now I have some time to sit down and reflect on all that needs to be covered to make this a successful trip.

First, I’ll need a good Japanese-English dictionary, I’m thinking Kodansha’s Furigana Japanese Dictionary provides furigana (the small kana script above each Kanji) which is perfect for pronunciation, looking up words, and for learning new Kanji as they might appear in temples and across the countryside.

Second, I’ll need to consider the fact that we’ll be hiking whenever we’re not sleeping, and so I’ll need a lightweight pack.  It’s been recommended that one not bring a pack and supplies that weigh more than 10% of their weight, so I’ll have to consider (given the dictionary itself is 2.5 pounds… that’s already 1.4% of my weight …) what I bring very carefully.  Given I’ll also be bringing my netbook (another ~2.5 lbs), questionnaires for pilgrims, sleeping bag, long johns, toiletries, as well the necessary henro gear, I’ll have to be careful what I choose.

Sleeping will be tricky, especially if I want to save cash by not sleeping in the more expensive Minshuku.  Luckily, I found this secret list of free lodging along the pilgrimage, which seems like a traditional form of couch surfing.  I’m getting rather excited about that.

I’ll keep you updated as things progress!

Hisashiburi Desune (It’s been a while)

Two years since having last visited the island of Japan, I’ve been granted the rare chance to return as a slightly more mature dilletante in Japanese culture.  If you’re interested in my first experience there, check the study abroad 2008 pages.

My current trip has been made available to me in no small part through the efforts of Fred Borgen, Ph.D. (whose recent work in career exploration can be found here); and David Campbell, Ph.D.   These two researchers/academicians established the  International Travel Fund to support scholarly activities in the international community.    I was both surprised and extremely grateful to discover that I received this year’s award.

I will be traveling to Japan to study in part the devastation of the earthquake and how persons are coping with the tragedy and also to examine how Eastern religion may differ from western religion in its role in forgiveness and forbearance.  Forbearance is the tendency to conceal or minimize one’s problems in order to avoid burdening other’s with one’s own problems.  It is intimately related to collectivist values and the desire to maintain interpersonal harmony.  One of the scales I will be using is Moore & Constantine’s Collectivist Coping Styles Measure  (2005; The measure is public domain and the article can be found online here).  I’ll be studying these things as I travel along the Shikoku Pilgrimage.

My departure date is May 22nd, a few short weeks away.   Once I arrive in Japan, I intend to use this blog as both a way to explore some of the research questions I will be encountering on the trip as well as to document and catalogue my experiences.  In the meantime, I’ll be using it to explore my preparations.

Overall, I am extremely excited by this opportunity, and feel that I can contribute significantly to the research on coping with traumatic events that has become more and more relevant since 9/11.  My only reservations about this trip surround multicultural competence; but, so long as I remain open to reflecting on my own experiences and potential biases surrounding religion, spirituality, and coping, I believe that the experience will be incredibly meaningful.

Summing up

I’ve just finished the last of my papers after pulling an all-nighter in which I drank some concentrated Japanese coffee that came out of a vending machine and listened to the downpour of a typhoon that should have ended with the rain season a few weeks ago. With this final act of ganbatte, I have thus severed all connection to Jouchi Daigaku, and am free to enjoy the last few days here with the family before coming back to the States Thursday afternoon.

As I take that long, meandering look over the last four months, I can safely assert that its contained some of the most difficult times in the history of my short 21 years of living. The combined effects of the classic homesickness, of a city that is pure sensory-overload, and having courses that are just a bit beyond my level of understanding took their toll. But at the same time I regret absolutely no part of the experience. It’s taught me much, about the nature of success through failure, about a foreign way of conducting life, and about just how important my friends and family are to my future.

Part of the initial purpose of this blog, along with having a way to catalog my experience, was to give those students interested in studying abroad in Japan an insight into what the experience might be like. To this end, my final word on the whole experience is thus: DO IT. Maybe don’t repeat my particular mistakes, I would not recommend Sophia University as the best place to learn the language or to experience the culture for example, but do it with the full knowledge that you will make your own terrible, terrible mistakes.

Yet the guaranteeably large number of mistakes does not mean Japan is merely a humbling experience, it doesn’t just shake your confidence. Rather, to a certain degree it makes you no longer fear the prospect of your own failure. When even conversing with your family becomes a comedy of errors, you begin to learn that the consequences of mistakes is never the perceived absolute failure you had thought it was.

If I had spent the past four months in Iowa, things would definitely have been more comfortable. Yet, I would never have been forced to question my own limits, to recognize that even when I failed in my own eyes the people around me and my family back home still held respect for me. And now, after having swallowed my pride and pocketed all this, I can return to the States to try and put value back into the place I call my home and rejoice with the people I call family.

All this abstract thinking aside, Japan is an amazing place with some truly amazing chicks and dudes in it, and if you’ve got any interest in the country to begin with, make the plunge. You’ll walk away with some great memories and maybe even a bottle of sake with your name spelled out in Kanji on it.

I’m Still Kicking

I’ve got mountainous piles of work and non-work-related things to be doing, but I’m still trekking, and doing pretty well all things considered.  It’s the final 2 and 2/3 weeks in Japan, and I’ve got to tie off all the lose ends of projects started and as of yet unfinished, another Oxfam seminar I have to prepare for, packing to do, camping with the homestay family, finals and papers and readings and oh so many things.  But so long as I don’t think about it from a holistic perspective, so long as I break it down piece by piece and do what needs to be done right now, things have proven themselves manageable.  It’s the final countdown, and I’m Europe baby.

Also, I’d like to invite everyone who hasn’t already heard to a BBQ get together at my homestead in the luscious green hills of Nevada.  There’s going to be prize winning pork, as well as fruits and whatnot for all those people who aren’t so inclined to that sort of thing.  It’ll be a veritable shmorgesboard I guarantee.

Seriously, everyone is invited.  This includes you and all of your friends.  I’m going to right now at this very moment set the time for 1:00 in the afternoon, August 2nd, so if you can make your way over by all means do so.  I’ll also be making a quick jaunt over to Grinnell to pick up some happening dudelies, so that means I can pick any Grinnellians up too.

Be there, and count on fireworks and raw steak and football and everything else you can’t find in Japan to be there as well.