
Koya Bound – Eight Days on the Kumano Kodo - cmod
http://walkkumano.com
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sandgraham
When I was 18 I traveled to Koya-san to begin and end my Shikoku Pilgrimage. I
collected the calligraphy and stamps unique to all 108 temples (including the
20 bangai) along the 1000 mile trail. When I returned to Koya-san I went to
the calligraphy window at the temple to have the final page of my nokyocho
stamped and signed. The monk at the window took my book, flipping through the
ink heavy pages that had taken me months of lonely backpacking to fill.
Finally he arrived at the last blank page. He filled it in without question.
Black ink strokes and three deliberate red stamps over the black completed my
journey. He closed the book and handed it back to me through the window. We
looked at one another for a moment in silence. I was sure this monk could
sense the power this moment held for me. After a pause he raised his hand and
pointed. I followed his finger to a sign on the right of the window. It took
me a second to realize I owed him ¥1,000.

Koya-san is a magical place.

[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shikoku_Pilgrimage](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shikoku_Pilgrimage)

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ue_
Out of interest, what prompted you to make such a trip? When I was 18 (granted
this was only a couple of years ago) all I managed to do was stay with a host
family for a few weeks in Japan :)

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sandgraham
To be honest, after a pretty lackadaisical first year of college I wanted to
do something a bit more extreme. So naturally I dropped out and started
looking at Pilgrimage trails. I didn’t really understand much of the
historical and spiritual significance of the Shikoku trail until I actually
started it and spoke with other pilgrims. The experience, at least at the
beginning, was more about taking a completely divergent turn and diving into a
culture that had fascinated me for years. That said, if you want to go back,
its a surprisingly affordable endeavor if you can clear 4-6 weeks.

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metrognome
For those looking to create their own webpage like this, it looks like it was
based on Lucas Bebber's Storytelling Map:

[http://tympanus.net/codrops/2015/12/16/animated-map-path-
for...](http://tympanus.net/codrops/2015/12/16/animated-map-path-for-
interactive-storytelling/)

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gchokov
Yes, they provide this info in the write up as well.

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Legogris
I did this for two weeks back last spring. Walking and hitchhiking, camping in
my tent on mountain tops and road stations. Best thing I've done in Japan I
think. But be prepared if you set out to do this - the mountains don't lend
themselves to camping that well and sometimes it actually takes a couple of
hours to find a place to put up a tent in a safe way. You should also have
some grasp of Japanese culture and preferably the language first - don't be
the (in their eyes) ignorant and disrespectful foreigner who comes and abuses
the opportunity. Camping in public areas is not really commonplace in Japan,
so you want to be discrete and low-key about it. And yes, Koya-san is awesome
in the true sense of the word. You can get lost there, place is yuge. It's got
the best graves.

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GuiA
_> You should also have some grasp of Japanese culture and preferably the
language first - don't be the (in their eyes) ignorant and disrespectful
foreigner who comes and abuses the opportunity._

Every time I traveled in the past, I felt extremely self conscious. Like I was
but a consumer, experiencing only the most superficial things, greedily taking
what a place has to offer without giving anything back. So now I've been using
all of my vacation days to go to the same country (Japan), slowly learning the
language and culture, making long term friends, frequenting the same small
local shops (staff recognize some me at a few places now), etc. It's been a
very rewarding experience so far - it feels much deeper than any of the
tourism I did in the past. I'll probably move there at some point.

Not really a point to my post, maybe some people would find going to the same
place over and over again terribly boring - but thought I'd share.

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cmod
Absolutely agree — this is why I keep going back to Kumano.

Japan has Nakasendo, Tokaido, the Shikoku pilgrimage, salt roads, Basho's
backroads to the north, the paths of Dewasanzan, etc etc etc. It's nearly
infinite. I figured if I spend ten years walking Kumano I might have the
slightly chance of possibly understanding a small piece of it.

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magicbuzz
I've been to Koya-san twice. It's an amazing place/atmosphere, including the
trip up.

Third time around I will have to walk there.

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Ayaz
Pictures taken from the point rain began look so ghostly and chilling they
give me goosebumps. Beautiful journey, beautifully narrated.

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frrp
Koya-san is one of the most memorable places in Japan. I can recommend
visiting in the deep winter when it's very cold with lots of snow and the
atmosphere is otherworldly.

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Dowwie
Nice web site. I like how the map flows with the photos and storyline. Thanks
@metrognome for showing how they did it.

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vrp101
The kickstarter link is broken :(

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cmod
Oops — fixed. Thanks. Was missing an http. Here it is if you were curious:
[http://walkkumano.com/kickstarter.com/projects/craigmod/6152...](http://walkkumano.com/kickstarter.com/projects/craigmod/615288454/)

