Celebrate finalization of Henro pilgrimage


Koya-san


Koya-san

On November 28th I visited Mount Koya to formally finish the o-Henro pilgrimage. I had  visited Koya-san a few times before. It is a spiritual location and also visually very appealing.

On November 30th Christiane and I were invited by Ikuyo-san and Kenji-san to celebrate my successful finalization of the o-Henro pilgrimage at their house. Ikuyo and Kenji very very supportive during my journey for which I can not thank them enough. 

They gave to me a Daruma doll as a present which now stands in our house as one memory of an exciting trip to Japan


Ikuyo and Kenji, big supporters of my journey

Celebration at Ikuyo and Kenji's house

I got a Daruma as a present

Ikuyo-san prepared a wonderful buffet for all of us

The Daruma doll is standing for good fortune. The eyebrows of the Daruma are formed by cranes and the beard by turtles. Both animals are representing longevity. Personal wishes are written in gold on the Daruma (e.g. accomplishing goals are written on the shoulder).
A famous saying is "the Daruma falls seven times and rises up eight". The balanced center of the round Daruma body symbolizes a way of Zen thinking, where fortitude and calmness enable the handling of any hardship. 

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Day 4: I am tired

Image
Distance: 20 km (total: 87 km), time on the road: 10h, altitude: 310 meters, sunny and only partly cloudy at 29 degrees Celsius and almost no wind. I am so tired from the last 4 days and will sleep shortly. I am tired The private house we stayed in is just opposite to temple 17 and very nice. It has only four guest rooms. Just see todays party at the evening dinner. No one is younger than 60 years of age. The oldest (Matsubara-san) is 76. He walked o-henro more than 10 times and said, that he is famous because of that and will shortly be in TV. Joint evening dinner with "the Frensh man", Matsubara-san and Kato-san Entrance door of Temple 17 Start at 6:30 in the morning. It goes steep up into the mountains. Stephan ahead, he will disappear soon. Dolls in Kamiyama 0n the resting bench you can see the water stains from my wet trousers (from sweating)
Read more

Day 48: the circle is competed, I arrived back at T1 and thus my journey is finally over

Image
Today I walked 29 km (final total: 1062 km) back to T1 Ryozenji, where my o-Henro journey started on September 27th 2023. The day began with heavy rain and cold temperatures at 7 degrees Celsius. About noon time the rain stopped and in the afternoon, when I finished the day some blue sky could be seen and impressive clouds made it finally a good day to end. A good moment and a surprise was, that I meet 2 Japanese  men at Ryozenji again to whom I had an important connection. It were exactly those two men who encouraged and supported me, when I was exhausted and slowly walked up the steep hills to Shosanji on day 3. I walked jointly with them down the hill and saw them later on during the long journey a couple of times. Danjo Masayki and me at Ryozenji (T1) Morimoto Hirokazu and me at T1 An young Austrian couple whom I met also a few times at the end of the tour A rainy start of the day at Horinji Back at Anrakuji temple, were I stayed the first night of my journey Later in the day the c
Read more

First Day in Japan: Osaka

Image
It is my first day in Japan. Osaka was still as clean as I remember the town. The people on the street were well dressed and the whole atmosphere was peaceful and relaxed. In the evening I had a nice yakiniku dinner with former Bayer colleagues. With former Bayer colleagues at Tajimaya Yakiniku Restaurant in Osaka Presentation of the beef ...enjoying the evening    
Read more