Day 37: Temple 54

So this may become interesting. There were eight guests at the hostel last night – 6 Americans and 2 Japanese men. Of the Americans, there were two couples – one bicycling through Shikoku for several days before visiting the son stationed down in Okinawa and the other a pair of documentary filmmakers.

The documentarians had just completed a nine-part series on the Camino de Santiago pilgrimage in Spain and were in the process of trying to sell it at an upcoming conference in Taiwan. During their time in Spain, they had learned about the Shikoku 88 Temple Pilgrimage which they had not heard of before. They decided as a follow-up project to the Camino to begin a television documentary on the Shikoku pilgrimage. Possibly for PBS. To make a long story short, they asked if they could accompany and interview both of us on our walk the next day. We spent today walking and talking with two documentary filmmakers.

Connor and I spent the day wearing microphones and being filmed as we walked throughout the day. Ari, the couple’s cameraman, spent most of the day walking with Connor and I was back and forth between them and Isabela, the sound person. I didn’t pry to much as to whether their relationship went beyond professional, but I’m assuming it did.

Anyway, Connor and I may be part of a documentary series on the Shikoku Pilgrimage. However, they assured me it would be at least a year before we heard from them again and more like two years before the documentary would be available to stream online or be available on PBS, assuming it gets completed and sold. So keep an eye out for any documentaries on the Shikoku Pilgrimage in the next two or three years.

Isabela promised I would see her sooner than that as she will probably be in Chicago between now and then and I promised I would go with her to the Green Mill jazz bar on the north side of Chicago.

One personal irritating bit happened when I was walking behind Ari and Connor. The two of them started passing by a row cherry blossom trees when Ari steps out into the street and starts filming Connor from a low angle with all these cherry blossom trees shedding their petals all around him as he walked. I followed behind thinking, ”Oh, yeah, that’s going to be a beautiful shot” and DIDN’T EVEN THINK ABOUT PULLING OUT MY IPHONE TO TAKE A PICTURE OF THE SCENE FROM BEHIND. I’m still kicking myself of that. So look for the beautiful shot of my nephew walking through falling cherry blossoms when/if the documentary comes out.

I got interviewed, too. I told the Emon Saburo story which I still have yet to tell you and was encouraged to just philosophize on the nature of the pilgrimage and its meaning. They seemed please with what they got from both of us, so we’ll see.