The 88 Temple Pilgrimage and the Army

It's Basic Training all over again.

How is the pilgrimage similar to the Army? Let me count the ways.

1. You're marching for kilometers upon kilometers all day. You actually cover more distance per day during the pilgrimage, while in the Army that distance is being constantly broken up with random activities like staring into the woods for no reason, trading food items for the ever valuable Chocolate Milkshake mix, and cracking wise while being yelled at and punished by Drill Sergeants.

2. You're wearing a weird uniform. In the Army the uniform helps to camouflage you and identify you as a combatant vis a vis the rules of war. The pilgrim uniform serves the exact opposite function! It makes you stand out so that people can spot you and help you out, and identifies you as a pilgrim on the path to peace and enlightenment. I think I'll take option two, Alex.

3. You're constantly using map reading skills. This was a huge weakness for me in the Army. I passed land navigation not by using a map, but by going to Every Single Possible Coordinate on the course and using process of elimination to find the correct one! This map reading deficiency followed me to Shikoku, where I was constantly going up dead end mountain trails and ending up, ironically, at Japanese Army bases instead of the temples I sought. The more things change. . .

4. Everyone is speaking a weird foreign language. In Japan that language is Japanese, albeit with some interesting Shikoku twists. You may think that the US Army speaks English, but get a gander of the next sentence: After formation, assemble the battalion to load the MRAPs with MREs and convene for bivouac at zero hundred hours. Army English is basically its own dialect.

5. Phone time is limited. In Basic we were limited to 5 minute calls on the pay phones during personal time, and even that privilege was under constant threat of being revoked. In Shikoku, only the first city of Tokushima had cell phone coverage, and the rest of the time I had to call my girl on the outside with an awkward combination of decaying public phones, land lines, and telekinesis. Frickin' Shikoku.

6. Bugs, injuries, and illness. In South Carolina I was under constant assault from colonies of fire ants, while in Shikoku, gnats, beetles and mosquitoes were a constant bane. I spent all of Basic with a sniffling cold that erupted into a 103 degree fever for a couple days, while on the pilgrimage I kept constant sickness at bay with a steady barrage of Advil. And in the Army you were always sore somewhere, while on the trail I was always nursing an ankle injury or foot problem. Tough stuff.

7. And finally, camaraderie. When you go through something this frickin' tough, you form great bonds with the people by your side. I still talk to my Army buddies, and visited one of them in Tokyo after the pilgrimage was complete. Similarly, my Australian pilgrim buddy Barnaby is officially invited to the wedding, if he can get his Aussie ass over to America somehow. We are the Henro Army.