[YEAR 7!] Quit our jobs, sold our home, gone riding...

[lightcycle]

And then further on, we see the same figures in silhouette on the road. Is this a special thing in Tokushima?

Upon closer inspection, these two figures were everywhere, on store windows, posters, etc.

I looked up "Awa Odori" on the Internet and discovered that Tokushima is the site of an annual music and dance festival, held at the end of every summer.

Legend has it that in the 1500s, a feudal lord sent sake out to all the villagers to celebrate after completing construction of his castle in Tokishima (which back then was called Awa). The villagers all got drunk and started stumbling through the streets in a haphazard fashion.

From then on, every year people danced on the streets in drunken fashion. There's a specific dance movement, which requries raising your right arm and right leg, then your left arm and left leg, exactly like those figurines found all over the city.

The Awa Dance. Not my pictures. Taken from the Internet

These days, hundreds of dancers will take to the streets dressed in colourful costumes. Tens of thousands more come from all over the country and the world, all to take part in the annual drunken dance. Because it's not enough just to spectate. During the dance, everyone chants in Japanese, "It's a fool who dances and a fool who watches! If both are fools, you might as well have fun dancing!" HAHA! So cool!!!

Just like the huge Fire Festival in Kumano, we are slowly finding out that Japan is home to dozens of these crazy festivals held all over the country at various times of the year. We've now made it a mission to see and take part in at least one of these over-the-top festivals during our trip. It's the next item right after Neda's "Cherry Blossom Festival" on our Japan bucket list!

That was an excellent rest day in Tokushima. We're off to explore Shikoku now!

 

[lightcycle]

Celebrating today with our sporadically annual tradition of cake and candles!

If you had asked us when we first set off on June 14th, 2012 where we thought we'd be in seven years time, I doubt our answer would be: "Still riding around the world on motorcycles!"

The last couple of years have been a tumultuous roller-coaster of ups and downs, wonders and tribulations. Sending a big thank you to everyone who's following us and left us a comment or sent us an e-mail or PM, supporting and encouraging us as we continue our journeys around the globe.

It's made us feel like we're riding with a whole bunch of folks on our back seats, looking over our shoulders and sharing in everything that we're seeing and doing!

Love you guys,
Neda and Gene!

 

[profdlp]

Neda and Gene, I found this site six years ago. I had just bought a Jeep and my dream has always been to live a go-anywhere, see-everything lifestyle. That hasn't happened for me yet, but following your adventures has been the next-best thing.

Wishing you both happiness in your lives, and for purely selfish reasons, hoping that it's like the old cowboy serials where you ride off into the sunset only to return in the next installment with even greater tales to tell.

Thanks! Even though the rest of us are following from our computer screens, it has indeed been quite a ride!

 

[Arjan]

Have Fun, enjoy yourzelves and many, many more birthdays on the roads- where they lead you !!

 

[R1200GSA]

I'm not sure if they realized, but we were really picking their brains on how to live in Japan. Because we really like it here and had a million questions like how hard it was to learn the language, how accepted you are as a foreigner, etc. Nori told us that it is a very closed culture, and not just for gaijin. She was born here but upon her return after a few years working abroad, she was treated very differently, not as a nihonjin - 100% full-blooded Japanese person - anymore.

She said that the expectations for foreigners are very low. They just presume that you're not going to be as smart or as hard-working as a futsu-no nihonjin (term for "ordinary Japanese person" meant in an exclusionary manner), and that her years living in Singapore pretty much branded her a lazy gaijin when she returned. Also, Japanese culture is very patriarchal, and that they don't treat women as well here as in other more progressive countries.

This is referred to as 'nihonjinrin' and is kind of the belief of Japanese that they are 'unique' and direct descendants of the deity Amaterasu.

Thanks so much for your inspiring trip. I followed your trip for a long time then, well - family. I just searched Japan on the forum as we just returned from our fourth trip and your thread again. YAY!

I thought this photo of Fuji reminded me of someone...

 

[lightcycle]

Thanks for all the well wishes. Our blog is well behind, but I'll try to post up what I have.

 

[lightcycle]

Updated from http://www.RideDOT.com/rtw/399.html

We're riding the island of Shikoku today. The plan is to simply follow the coastline south-west from Tokushima and just check out what's along the way.

So no plan really...

A little shortcut through the mountains. Virtually no traffic once we're outside of Tokushima! We like that.

Quick photo break! The bikes are handling nicely and I think I'm finally starting to get used to the sporty seating position

It's still pretty cold and overcast as we break through the heavily forested mountains. The twisty road we're on quickly descends down to Shikoku island's shores. We're greeted by the sight of sandy beaches along the coastal route.

 

[lightcycle]

Along the coast, we pass by several groups of hikers on the road dressed in the same white jackets we saw in Koya the other day

These hikers are actually on the Shikoku 88 Temple Pilgrimage. There are 88 temples scattered all around the island of Shikoku. Pilgrims have to visit all of them in order, traveling a total of 1,200 kms! To show your progress, you get your Temple Stamp Book marked with a red stamp found at each temple. So it's like a religious scavenger hunt!

People from outside Japan may not be aware, but there is a bit of fad going on with these Goshuin (temple stamp books) in Japan these days. Temple stamps can be found all over the country, not just on Shikoku. We're on a lot of Japanese Facebook groups, and we've seen so many posts of people's goshuin showing off rare stamps from hard-to-reach temples. For a lot of young people here, if you're going on vacation or on a business trip to a different part of Japan, you must always make time to visit one of the temples in the area to get your goshuin stamped there, so you can post a picture of it on Facebook, to the envy of everyone else!

 

[lightcycle]

Back to the pilgrims though. There is a traditional pilgrim's outfit that consists of a white coat, purple scarf, conical hat and a wooden walking stick

Most of the pilgrims today undertake the pilgrimage by tour bus, but a small number still do it on foot, which typically takes six months to complete. This is something I can totally see Neda doing...

Despite all this preparation, many pilgrims don't actually complete the full 88-temple, 1,200km pilgrimage. They say most give up around Temple #30, in Kochi, because of its hot temperatures, frequent rains and it's distance from civilization. I guess at that point they hop on the tour bus with the rest of the other pilgrims...

Since the pilgrimage can be done any time of the year, early spring is probably the best time to undertake it, as the weather hasn't gotten too hot yet on the island, and the snow is already disappearing from the mountains.

On our southern route down the east coast of the island, we pass throgh Minami, where we spot a large temple from the road. This turns out to be Yakuoji temple. It's #23 on the Shikoku 88. We stop to investigate.

 

[lightcycle]

At the temple in Minami, we see the cartoon sign for food, the mascot with the noodle bowl on his head. Must be a restaurant inside?

No restaurant. And embarassingly, I find out that it's not a sign for food at all. The cartoon figure is actually Koya-Kun, a monk who is the mascot for the town of Koya, which we visited a day earlier. The reason the Shikoku 88 pilgrims were in Koya, was because that is where everyone traditionally goes to prepare for the trek.

So I guess that's not a noodle bowl on his head... Oops...

Some more ema cards with wishes written on them. So cold, someone gave the statue of the monk a knitted cap... not a noodle bowl...

 

[lightcycle]

Buddhist swastikas adorn the temple roofs overlooking the town of Minami and the coastline of Shikoku

Passing by many small shrines, each a little house for a diety

At Yukuoki, there is a local custom where people visiting the temple leave coins on the steps just beside the railing for good luck. I haven't seen that in any other temple.

Closeup of the white jackets that the Shikoku 88 pilgrims wear. Emblazoned on the back
is name of the Buddhist monk, "Kukai", who is associated with the pilgrimage

 

[lightcycle]

Various people and statues around Yukuoji templ

Orange and white koi fish swim in little channels
and pools found around the temple

Koi is Japanese for carp. Typically carp is grey in colour, but when it was first brought over to Japan, breeders brought out various bright colours in the fish. The koi fish are a symbol for love and friendship because "koi" also sounds like the word for "love" in Japanese.

Aha, we spy the first Cherry Blossoms! Neda is sooo happy we are finally seeing them start to bloom!

Our elation is short-lived though. There is a chart on the Internet which shows when the cherry blossoms bloom in each part of the country. However, we've just heard that Tokyo has had a bout of unusually warm weather lately. The cherry blossoms are in full bloom right now where we just left! Dammit! We traveled for a week and a half just to catch the beginnings of the bloom in the south and it's already well underway back in the north!

 

[lightcycle]

Prayer candles and cherry blossoms

Back on the road, heading further south. I love the Japanese writing on the tarmac
I have no idea what it says, but it's a constant reminder that we are in Japan!

We pass by many of these huge ramps that led to nothing in particular

Japan has a long history of earthquakes and tsunamis. The last big earthquake/tsunami was in 2011, and that one caused the Fukushima reactor meltdown. During that disaster, a 30-meter tidal wave of black water slammed the north-east coast, killing 18,000 people.

Since then, many countermeasures have been put in place to prepare for the next big earthquake and/or tsunami. Vast underground tunnels have been carved beneath Tokyo to allow the flood waters to drain. In the coastal areas, these ramped tsunami evacuation towers allow people to climb high enough to avoid killer tidal waves and being drowned in the resulting floods.

There were about 4 or 5 of these mega structures in each town we passed through. Crazy!

 

[lightcycle]

Road rises up so we stop to get a glimpse of the coastline from above

Neda says the rocky coast here reminds her of California

While we are sightseeing around the area, we catch a glimpse of a stray dog running across the road in front of our parked bikes. A closer look reveals that it's not a dog at all...

It's a monkey! A Japanese macaque, specifically. We stare at them up in the trees. They stare back at us.

 

[Sierra Valley]

Yes updates!!!! Good to see you back on the forum.