#285

April 2014
1200th Anniversary of the Shikoku Pilgrimage
A Look at Temple 1 Ryozen-ji
By David C. Moreton

Temple 1, Ryozen-ji taken by Alfred Bohner in 1927

Spring has arrived andwith it many people frominside and outside Japanare coming to experiencesome or all of the renowned

Shikoku pilgrimage. 2014 isvery important in its history
because it is believed that1200 years ago Kukai(Kobo Daishi, 774-835)

visited all of the sacred sitesaround the island connecting
them into this pilgrimage
route. Increasingly more andmore people are coming

Page 1, 3-4: A Look at Temple 1 Ryozen-ji
Page 4: Fitness Corner; Page 5-6: Farewell Messages
Page 7: Letter from Suketo Hoikuen; Page 8: Japanese Lesson
Page 9: Irene's Recipe Corner; Page 9: Flower Viewing SpotsPage 10-12: Events & Memoranda

1

is a monthly publication of theTokushima Prefectural International
Exchange Association (TOPIA)

Jenifer Tanikawa & Martin RathmannDavid C. Moreton, Junko Kimura, Clint
Eckstein, Tsuyoshi Amabe, Jiangning Tong,
Kazue Inoue, Yoshie Motoki, Irene
Wachuga

Clement Plaza 6F
1-61 Terashima Honcho Nishi
Tokushima City 770-0831 JAPAN
tel: 088.656.3303
fax: 088.652.0616
topia@topia.ne.jp
http://www.topia.ne.jp/
Download a PDF file of awa life or view theonline version by going to TOPIA's website!

Show Tokushima Some Love: Awaglot
The literary corner of
AwaLife, Awaglot, is acombination of the words"awa" and "polyglot", whichmeans multilingual. Be it
fiction, nonfiction, prose
or poetry; funny, sad, longor short, we want yoursubmissions! If you like towrite, then express yourself!
There is also a classifieds
section for you, our readers,to post ads in, but a few
rules do apply!

Religious, political,
or commercial activities,businesses searching forclients or employees,
things the Awa Life editors
deem inappropriate.

If you have something you
would like to share with
the Tokushima community,
email the editors atconcerts,
lectures, and other event
information, cultural, sporting,and other community
group information, etcetera.

Dog lost in the scent of spring flowers (Junko Kimura)2

A Look at Temple 1 Ryozen-ji(Con't from Page 1)

to follow in his footsteps.
In fact, some recent reports
give a number of between
100,000 and 300,000 who
annually participate in thispilgrimage. Of these, it isestimated that about 5,000
are walkers and perhaps
about fifty are foreigners.
Since this is a commemorative
year, many of the eightyeight temples along theroute are holding special
events between December
2013 and January 2015.
For example, Temple 71,
Iyadani-ji will publicly display
a statue of Kobo Daishi.
This is the first time to do
so in 320 years!!! So, if you
have time, please go andexperience these rare events.
(For an English translationof the event list see,shikokuhenrotrail.com/shi
koku/1200YearAnniversar
y.html)With so many people now
making the pilgrimage andit attracting a lot of coveragein the media there is ahuge amount of informationon the Internet, so I will try
to refrain from repeating
basic information here. In
fact, numerous articles havebeen published in Awa Lifeon this topic in the past. I
will only say that if you arelooking for a great site inEnglish I highly recommend:www.shikokuhenrotrail.com.
My aim is to give a brief
history of the temple, suggest

interesting things to look atwhen you visit, and present
what foreigners in the distantpast have said and written
about their visits to thetemples.
Let`s start with Temple 1,
Ryozen-ji:
About a fifteen-minute walkfrom JR Bando station in
Naruto is Ryozen-ji (),
the temple where manypilgrims start their journey.
On the temple grounds andclose by there are stores thatsell all the necessary pilgrim
accoutrements, including
Shikoku Japan 88 Route
Guide (Buyodo Publishing)– the only map/guidebook
in English. Regarding thehistory of the temple, it isbelieved that during the 8th
century a Buddhist priest,
Gyogi Bosatsu (668-749),
established Ryozen-ji under
the direction of Emperor
Shomu (701-756). Then when
Kukai came to Shikoku to
make the pilgrimage in 815,
he trained here, carved thestatue of Shaka Nyorai andconsecrated this place as
the starting point of thepilgrimage. During the 16th
and 19th centuries, most of
the buildings were destroyedby fire, but were later
restored. One building totake notice of is the one toyour right when you enter themain gate. It is normallyclosed, but above you can
see a sign that reads fromright to left: Kishu Settaisho(). “Kishu” ispresent-day
Wakayama
prefecture and “settaisho”
means a “place for giving
settai.” (settai means tangible
or intangible gifts) For morethan two hundred years
two groups have comehere from Wakayama to
distribute settai, such as
fruit and other items, topilgrims on a few days in
March and April.
As you might know, during
World War I there was a
German POW camp between
Temple 1 and 2 and that there
was a lot of interaction
between the local people
and the POWs. Between
March 8 and 19, 1918 anart exhibition was held on
the grounds of Ryozen-ji
and at a public hall acrossthe street (now a gravel
parking lot) during whichtime the Germans soldfood, played music, anddisplayed things that they
had made. The event wassuch a success that over
40,000 people attended.
After the war one of theGermans from the Bandocamp stayed in Japan andworked in Osaka. His younger
brother, Alfred Bohner,
could not find work inGermany so, thanks to his
older brother, secured ateaching job in Matsuyama
from 1922. Five years later,
Alfred embarked on the3

A Look at Temple 1 Ryozen-ji(Con't from Page 3)

Shikoku pilgrimage and took
this photo of Ryozen-ji.
Alfred later published abook “Wallfahrt zu Zweien”(Two on a Pilgrimage), which
has been republished in
English and German, that
describes his research on thepilgrimage and journey around
Shikoku. He is perhaps
the first Westerner toproduce a book on the
Shikoku pilgrimage.

Comparing the main gateof 1927 with today, you
can see that nothing haschanged, but now there isa very busy road runningleft to right in front of thegate. On nearby hydro poles
there are path markers
that point the way toTemple 2, but I suggest
ignoring them and walkthe original route, whichruns straight down fromthe gate. Follow the green

line painted on the road,which actually goes all theway to Bando station, but
turn right at the two largestone pillars that state“Temple 1, Ryozen-ji” () andproceed through the tranquil
streets to Temple 2,
Gokuraku-ji.

Fitness Corner
By Clint Eckstein
There are a lot of great
workouts you can dowithout weights or theneed for a lot of space.
So far I’ve been listingsome workouts, but if
you’re like me, sometimes
it’s really nice to havesomeone showing/telling
you what to do so you canjust workout and not think
about it.
This month I wanted to list
some great free websites
you can use to help kickstart your workout program.
You can always search
youtube videos, but thatcan be a little hit andmiss, so I’m going to list
some of my favorites andyou can pick and choose
from there.
www.bodyrock.tv
A great site filled with HIIT
4(high intensity interval
training) workouts from 12
to 60 minutes long. Be
warned, some of theseworkouts require someequipment, and a lot ofthem are tough! Awesome
and challenging.
www.fitnessblender.com
An easy to navigate sitethat allows you to searchworkouts by training type,body focus, difficulty, time,and calorie burnwww.sparkpeople.com
A great workout site forbeginners. It has separate
sections for eating better,feeling better, and looking
betterwww.youtube.com/user/BeFit
This is a massive YouTube
channel with hundreds
and hundreds of videos

Shameless plug. If you
like interacting and working
out with live humanbeings that aren’t on ascreen, and want to do
fun workouts with great
people once a week, I’ll bestarting up a free boot camp
every weekend starting at
the end of March. If you
have Facebook you canfind information by going
to
the
open
group,
Tokushima Social Scene.
You can also contact me(ClintEckstein)on
Facebook or e-mail me atclinteckstein@hotmail.com. The boot camp is free,open to all fitness levels,and to both native English
and Japanese speakers! I
hope to see you there!

Farewells
By Tsuyoshi Amabe and Jiangning Tong

Tsuyoshi Amabe and Jiangning Tong

Internship at TOPIA
By Tsuyoshi Amabe
I started my time as anintern at TOPIA in April
2013. Though my work here
was completely different
from my work at a middle
school as a teacher, bit by
bit I became used to my
job with the help of thekind people around me
and the words of advice
from the other staff. WhenTOPIA changed their officialname to add the kanji(koueki) meaning forthe public interest, I had tomanually stamp thousandsof envelopes with the newnames, but looking backat it now, it is a fondmemory. Just as the words
that I had laboriously
stamped symbolized, it
harbored a new sense of
motivation to work hardfor the people.

If I were to describe TOPIA
in one sentence, it would
be “the unsung hero.” At
TOPIA, we work towards thepromotion of international
exchange and of mutual
understanding
betweenthose from other countries
and the local people ofTokushima through various
activities. We provide day
to day support by giving
information to tourists,
offering Japanese language
classes to foreign residents
and providing support toforeigners living in Japan.
As well, we promote andfoster exchange throughevents such as theJapanese Speech Contest,
Summer English Seminar,
and the Arasowa-ren dancetroupe at Awa Odori.

As part of my duties, I was
predominantly involved with
TOPIA's International Understanding Support Instructor
Dispatch. In particular, I
remember this one time
when we visited an elementary school with instructors
from Tonga and Portugal.
It really was a great
moment, watching thechildren’s eyes sparkle andseeing their smiling faces
as they heard about thedifferent cultures and as
they looked at photos andartifacts. Meeting thesechildren, who grew up in aloving environment being
warmly watched over by
their teachers, guardians
and the local people,
reminded me of the phrase“people are shaped bytheir environment.” A few
days after the lecture, I
was reading the feedback
forms, and on one of theform it said “I want to befriends with Mr. Maka
(one of the instructors),” I
was so overjoyed, itbrought tears to my eyes,
it truly was the first step
into multiculturalism.
I have made countlessother memories, everythingfrom the lecture I attended
at Tokushima University on
International Cooperation,
to the time when I forgot
to bring the projector
during the Junior HighSchool Summer English
5

Farewells
Seminar and thankfully
the ALTs helped me. I now
understand the words ofmy predecessor, “Yourview of the world willchange, and so will yourvalues for the better.” I

would also like to tell mysuccessor, “The way thatyou view the field of
education and your life
will change,” and I hope totake my experience fromTOPIA and use that in my(Con't from Page 5)
work in the field of education
and while contributing tosociety. Thank you somuch for everything during
my year here.

My Farewell Message
By Jiangning Tong
There is a Japanese proverbthat goes, “a meeting is
the beginning of a parting.”
But when the time actuallycomes to say goodbye, I
can’t help but feel thesadness and lonelinesswelling up inside of me. It
reminds me of the feelingof emptiness that you get
when watching the soft
pink sakura trees in fullbloom, knowing that thepetals will eventually fallto the ground with thewind. Thinking about this,I cannot come to agree withthe words of the proverb.
Looking back at my yearin Tokushima as I get readyto leave, the memories ofthe fun, sad, new, interesting
experiences, each a shortfilm of its own, replays in
my mind. But more thananything I have nothing but
gratitude for all those whowelcomed my awkward self
warmly with smiles or withwords of encouragement.
One of my biggest tasks at
TOPIA was being the editorof the Chinese language
version of Awa Life. Though
this monthly publication isa mere eight pages long,knowing that this may beable to help someone,
fueled me to publish thebest product that I could. I
also enjoyed visiting theelementary schools andmiddle schools as part of thecultural exchange promotion
initiative. I really had a greattime introducing a new sideof China that they would
otherwise never know anddiscussing the JapaneseChinese relations with thestudents. It is important totreasure these cultural
exchanges at a grassroots
level with people in thelocal community. I believethat in order to promotecultural understanding andexchange, regardless of
one's nationality or race, it isimportant to foster interest
towards other cultures
and to be open minded.
We now live in the 21st
century, a generation where
technology has made a lotof things easier to do, andit feels as if the world isgetting smaller. When thetime comes to bid farewell,instead of saying sayonara(goodbye) , I would like tosay zai jian (see youagain). Whether it is inJapan or China, I lookforward to meeting you all
again someday.

Sakura blossoms in the night (Junko Kimura)6

Letter From Suketo Hoikuen
By Kazue Inoue
With the start of the newschool year, whether yourchild is starting kindergarten
or primary school, they
will be embarking on a
new lifestyle. With all of thisgoing on, how is everyone
doing? For children, April
is both the most excitingtime of the year and isalso daunting. During thistime, they have much to
look forward to but at thesame time it can be themost nerve-wracking timewith all the changes goingon around them! But, allin all, what we all hope foris for your child to be able
to enjoy a fun-filled day everyday. In order to help achievethis, it is very important totake the time to understandyour child.

Infants
Having physical contact
with your child is ofutmost importance. Givethem lots of hugs andsmile when you aretalking to them. And ofcourse, you can try thiswith older children.
Children who have alreadybegun to speak
Make sure you carefully
listen to what they have tosay. If they know that you
are listening to them andthey know that you aretrying to understand them,it will help motivate them
to work harder.
Praise them for theiraccomplishments
Instead of telling them tokeep trying hard, tell themthat they have done a greatjob. They will appreciate
this more and this will
help foster motivation.
*Dependingon
yourchild’s personality andpast experiences, it willchange how long it takes
for them to adjust to their
new surroundings. But
until they do, do not feellike you need to rush, bepatient and work throughit together.

Materials
1000 ml milk carton
Scissors
Elastic band
Materials to makeeyes, mouth, and leg
Glue

the

Instructions
1) Open up a 1000 ml
milk carton from the top
and flatten the box. Cut
out a portion of the carton
as shown in the picture.
2) Cut a 5 mm slit into thefour areas that are indicatedin the illustration.
3) Put an elastic bandaround the carton where
the slits are. Attach eyes,mouth, and legs to transformthe milk carton into a frog!
How to play
Hold down the milk carton
to stretch out the elastic
band, and when you let
go of the carton, it will hop
away.

***

7

Japanese Lesson
By Yoshie Motoki

8Irene's Recipe Corner
By Irene Wachuga

Easy steamed pudding (Irene Wachuga)

will find its way into yourcup thus showering you
with good luck.
Spring is here, and warmerdays are creeping in slowly.
Spring also ushers (O)hanami“cherry blossom viewing”
and parties and gatherings
are calling. So, here’s
something sweet to add
to that bento box andhopefully a falling blossom

2 eggs (M-L) size
250ml milk
30g sugar
Butter (unsalted) for coating
the pudding cups
Honey, maple syrup, etc

1. Butter the pudding cups
lightly but thoroughly.
2. Add enough water in a
steamer and bring to aboil, reduce heat and letsimmer gently.
3. In a bowl, break theeggs and whisk gently
without incorporating too
much air.
4. Add the sugar and milk
and mix gently until thesugar dissolves.
5. Strain.
6. Pour gently among thecups in equal measure.
7. Cover each cup with apiece of foil, put in thesteamer and steam, over
low heat for 5-7 minutes.
8. If a skewer comes out
clean, they are done.
9. Take off heat and let
cool at room temperature.
10. Add syrup if using any
and cool completely in thefridge if so desired.

Ohanami Flower Viewing Spots in Tokushima
Not only will you be able toenjoy the beautiful view of thecity from atop the mountain,
but you will be surrounded
in a sea of pink of 1500
cherry blossom trees. At
night paper lanterns will be
lit up for a romantic
atmosphere.
Best time to visit:
Late March to early April

One of the well known
cherry blossom viewing
spots in Tokushima, when
the flowers are in fullbloom, the entire mountainwill be a shade of pink.
You can enjoy the flowers
at night as well as they are
lit up from 18:00-22:00.
Best time to visit:
Late March to early April

Sakura blossoms will adorn
either side of the Ikunatani
River for a stretch of 1km.
You can take a leisurely
stroll along the river andenjoy the breathtaking
sight. Perfect for families
and couples alike.
Best time to visit:
Late March to early April
9Events & Memoranda
TOKUSHIMA PREFECTURE
2014 JAPANESE SPEECH CONTEST

10

Events & Memoranda
JLPT Japanese-Language Proficiency Test (JLPT)The following are the guidelines for the2014 July JLPT.

Test Date: July 6 (Sun)Start Time: 12:30
Test Sites: Tests will be administered in
45 prefectures, including Tokushima

Application period: April 1 (Tue) - April
30 (Wed)Online application: Please submit by 17:00
Mailed application: Postmarked by April 30
Test Fee: 5,500 yen)*Application Guide is available for 500
yen at bookstores nationwide.
For more information visit: info.jees-jlpt.jp

Hana Haru Festa 20142014 marks the 17th anniversary of the
Hana Haru Festa. Just like the otheryears, they will have the same eventsand activities, but this year they will be
adding on special entertainment shows
including a comedy skit and magic showthat is fun for the whole family! Entry to
the two day “Awa Dance Spring Stage”
show (March 19 and 20 )at the Awagin
Hall will be free this year! This fun filled
event will put a smile on everyone’s
face♪

:4

18

- 20

:
When: April 18 (Fri) – 20 (Sun)
Where: Locations across Tokushima City
(Awagin Hall, Aibahama Park,
Shinmachi Boardwalk, etc.)
Info:
Hana Haru Festa Organizing
CommitteeTEL:
088-655-7331:
TEL:

088-655-7331

11Events & Memoranda
Hana no Sato: Moss Phlox Festival
Every year in April, when the moss phlox
are in full bloom, they organize a moss
phlox festival where all of the local
residents come together to put onvarious events. The fields will be a seaof white and pink, and it almost looks
like a flower carpet.
When: End of March – April 30 (Wed)Where: Mima City, Wakimachi Aza Nishi
Matamyo
Info: Moss Phlox Festival Committee
TEL: 0883-53-1905

TEL:

0883-53-1905

Yoshinogawa City Sakura Festival
The flowers will be lit up with 500 lanterns.
When: March 22 (Sat) - April 15 (Tue)
Where: Egawa Kamojima Park
Yoshinogawa City, Kamojima-cho,Kamojima
Info: Yoshinogawa Chamber of Commerce
TEL: 0883-24-2274

)

TEL:

0883-24-2274

Tokushima Marathon 2014
Come cheer on the 10,000 or socompetitors as they race around Tokushima!
When: April 20 (Sun) 9:00
For more information visit:
www.tokushima-marathon.jp/index.html

www.tokushima-marathon.jp/index.html

Counselling Service at TOPIA
TOPIA offers a counselling and advisory service to all foreign residents to help withissues involving accidents, working conditions, housing, visas, international marriage,and more. Counselling is available in English and Japanese. Please note that although
every effort will be made, we may not be able to deal with all cases.
Everyday, 10:00 - 18:00 (closed during the New Year's holidays)
Tel: 088-656-3303 or 088-656-3320 (allows three-way conversations with an interpreter)12