Spring in Japan: a time to re-evaluate, to explore spiritually the choices of the upcoming fiscal year. A season of pilgrimage. As the weather becomes warmer, but before the heat of summer can intrude, many Japanese don the white pilgrim's vest, grab their prayer beads and head out. The most famous pilgrimage, the 88 Buddhist temples pilgrimage in Shikoku, has attracted many foreigners throughout the years, but in typical quirkiness, Japan Times columnist Amy Chavez decided to gain her enlightenment more quickly than walking. "Running the Shikoku Pilgrimage" is her witty but often wise record of her attempt in 1998.
Fans of Chavez's wry humor will not be disappointed. A trip to a local bathhouse transcends the mundane as Chavez details an escapade with the ancient "Family Belter" fitness machine: "You stand and lean back against a vibrating belt. It works like a milkshake machine ... to jiggle fat off your waist." Or her pithy poetry to document her journey: "Fast food in a henro outfit/ people stare — / white death enters McDonald's." Even the original reason Chavez starts the pilgrimage — and decides to run the entire route, not walk it — resounds with her trademark humor.