Welcome to My New Travel Blog

Hi, I’m Bill and I’m planning a Spring of 2023 pilgrimage following the 88 Temple Pilgrimage circling the island of Shikoku in Japan, just over two months from now. I’ve set up this blog to keep in touch with my peoples back home and am still learning the ins-and-out of the WordPress desktop app and the mobile app which I intend to post from while on the pilgrim trail. As I’m not leaving until mid-March, I’m using this time to learn the webpage/mobile app, so I’ll be posting occasionally until then to get some practice and feedback from family, friends and acquaintances.

While in Japan, I’ll be writing, editing and posting from my iPhone using a collapsible, portable Bluetooth keyboard and the WordPress mobile app. As it sounds like it has the potential to become very frustrating, I’m using this time to compile basic information regarding the individual temples, especially the history, points of interest and lore surrounding each temple, into Word documents stored on my phone from which I can “simply” copy-and-paste/edit on my phone while at camp, in a coffee shop (or bar) or resting on a temple’s grounds in the evening. While I’d like to live by the adage “We Never Make Mistakes”, there will be mistakes.

Until I leave, it is my intention to post some materials regarding the history of the pilgrimage and the Buddhist monk Kukai (posthumously Kobo Daishi) around whom the pilgrimage is based. Anyone who’s already done any reading about the pilgrimage or Kobo Daishi can feel free to skip these upcoming posts – it’ll be old ground. Profs. David Moreton and Ian Reader are pre-emptively forgiven for not reading the upcoming posts.

Wish me “Ganbatte”! [“Do your best!” or “Hang in there!”]