A return to Shosan-ji:

Following the Buddhist pilgrimage route to the 88 temples of Shikoku

We leave tomorrow to return to the remote Buddhist mountaintop temple of Shosan-ji in Japan. I am excited, nervous and more than a little curious to visit this beautiful, mystical place that our family stumbled upon so many years ago.  

During our family’s cycling journey around the world, we got lost—horribly lost—in the steep mountainous interior of the island of Shikoku on Japan. We ended up camping on a freezing cold, windy, mountaintop below the Buddhist temple of Shosan-ji. As we awoke to an icy November sunrise over the grey-tile-roofed temple the next morning, we were startled to hear the tinkling of bells. Astonished, our family gazed bleary-eyed out of the tent at a group of white robed pilgrims, tapping their staffs adorned with tiny bells, as they walked up to the temple.  

This almost surreal moment has remained etched in my memory ever since. For those of you who have read our book, Breathtaking, the story of our adventures on Shosan-ji open the book—it was such a powerful experience. (For those of you who would like to read the story, it is available to read for free as a sample on Amazon at https://www.amazon.com/Breathtaking-Family-Cycled-Around-Asthma/dp/1493064312/).

For years, this memory has haunted me, calling us back to this mysterious, remote temple. Obsessively, I began researching Shosan-ji. It is the 12^th temple on the ancient Buddhist pilgrimage route around the island of Shikoku. Pilgrims come from all over Japan (and more recently, the world) to walk the 1300 km route to the 88 temples honoring the Japanese monk, scholar, artist and engineer, Kobo Daishi, who founded many of the sacred places along the way.

After many years of dreaming of following the Henro Michi–as the route is called–we are finally returning to Japan to join this year’s flow of pilgrims and bike and hike the 88 temples of Shikoku. I am not a Buddhist. Or even very religious. Still, for me, this is a very personal journey, closing an almost spiritual circle that we began when our family biked around the world to raise money for clean air and asthma. It is also a huge personal challenge—demanding that we climb thousands of feet to numerous remote (and hopefully equally beautiful) mountaintop temples along an almost 1000 mile circuit. We plan to end at Shosan-ji again—which was one of the hardest but also most extraordinary days of our cycling journey around the world.

We’ll be posting pictures on Instagram (@bike4breath) and Facebook. And I will write to you about our adventures (though depending on the experience, a full blog entry may wait until we get back home). We’d also love to hear from you—especially words of encouragement. I am, truthfully, rather terrified of climbing Shosan-ji again.

Our world cycling tours began as a fundraiser for asthma. And it  would be especially meaningful as we embark on this return journey, if you would consider making a donation to our long term partners, Saahns and the Asthma and Allergy Foundation of America (AAFA), via the Bike for Breath fundraiser https://bike4breath.com/how-you-can-help/. 100% of your donation goes to their programs.

Thank you for believing in us all these years.

Paula and Lorenz

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We’d love to hear from you as we pedal around Shikoku at paula@bike4breath.com. Follow us on Instagram @bike4breath or sign up for our blog at https://bike4breath.com/contact-us/. You might also enjoy reading our book, Breathtaking: How one family cycled around the world for clean air and asthma about our family’s cycling adventures around the world–through 24 countries across Europe, Asia, the South Pacific and North America.