Japan's Kumano Kodo

"I had been talking about a five-day trek on Japan’s Kumano Kodo, a 10th-century network of trails roughly 100 miles south of Kyoto that was named one of two 2004 UNESCO World Heritage spiritual pilgrimage sites. A Kumano pilgrim’s task is to rid the body and spirit of impurities from both past and present lives, to be ritually reborn and rejuvenated by the powers of the deities. I’m not an especially spiritual person, nor much of an ascetic. I don’t expect “rebirth.” I will don sturdy hiking shoes instead of straw sandals and have my luggage forwarded each day for a nominal fee rather than carry it on my back. But my own quest feels no less sacred: retreating from an incessantly reactive, whack-a-mole world to seek solitude in nature, to reflect, find calm, and reconnect to my deeper self."

From “A Walk on Japan’s Quiet Side” by Peggy Orenstein for Afar; Photo by Peter Bohler (@peterbohler) 

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