Two are walking together

 We arrived in Osaka, Japan on a chilly March evening after a 9 hour 15 minute flight from Honolulu and spent the first night at Hotel Nikko at Kansai airport. At 2 am the next morning we were both wide awake due to jet lag, the time difference being 19 hours ahead.

Each of us has a backpack, Heather's weighing 21 lbs (9.5kg)) and Josh's 26 lbs (11.8kg) dry weight. We've split the ultralight 3 person Big Agnes tent between the two of us. 

What's in our backpacks

I carried my sedge Henro hat as hand luggage which garnered quite a lot of interest from fellow passengers and the immigration inspectors at the airport. They knew exactly what we had arrived in Japan to do and expressed delight in their acknowledgement.

After quite a bit of reading, I eventually deciphered what the inscriptions on the hat mean: The Sanskrit inscription refers to O Daishi sama ( Kobo Daishi, the Japanese monk who brought Buddhism to Japan). Alongside that is an inscription saying "Two are walking together". This generally refers to the thought that the pilgrim will always walk with the monk Kukai (Kobo Daishi) but we think of it as Josh and I walking together.

Two are walking together 

 The other inscriptions refer to the following concepts: 

"Because you are imprisoned by your desires, you cannot escape the 3 realms."  (Representing the different levels of existence and the cyclical nature of suffering and rebirth).

"When you arrive at your enlightenment you will see a world that is free and peaceful."

"In the original world there is no East and West. These things are decided by man."

"Because there is no such thing as North and South, abandon your worry and live free."

All very interesting to observe as we move forward on our journey, participating in the rituals out of respect for the journey and culture of this beautiful place we are privileged to experience.

We will be keeping ourselves fed by buying food along the way from the 3 convenience stores called "konbini", namely : 7 Eleven, Family Mart and Lawson. These konbinis are well known for their extensive selection of prepared foods including bento boxes, onigiris and other various snacks and meals. Interestingly they also offer services like printing, bill payments and parcel services.

Today we are making our way to the point of the journey we last left off from in 2020, namely Temple 41 in Uwajima, Ehime Prefecture.

To get there we need to catch buses and trains and it will consume most of our day  The first leg of the journey will be to take a bus to Shikoku island which crosses the ocean via an expansive bridge and then hopefully an express train to Ehime Prefecture on the far side of Shikoku Island.