temples

Ubud, Bali, Indonesia

2025, Indonesia, , , , , , View all 23 comments

Ubud is in Bali, which is a province in Indonesia. A little more background….Indonesia is about 17,000 islands with many varied cultures, traditions, and histories. Indonesia became a sovereign nation in 1945 after about 300 years of occupation by the Dutch. With all its diversity, the country’s sense of unity is a source of national pride. Still, it’s difficult to manage across 17,000 islands and, probably as a result, the capital of Jakarta and its province, Java, have a disproportionate share of the goodies. This sometimes rattles some of the people on the 17,000 other islands.

But Bali is probably not rattled. It is doing quite well thanks to the 5 million tourists who annually visit its beaches and the charming city of Ubud. I’m in Ubud this week. It’s off-season but it’s busy! I can only imagine what it must be like when 20,000 more twenty-somethings roll into town.

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My 12 Henro Temples. Only 76 To Go.

2019, Japan, , , , , , , , View all 8 comments

Temple 4, Dainichi-ji, way up in the foggy hills

The Japanese island of Shikoku is well-traveled — but not by tourists. For more than 1200 years, thousands of pilgrims every year have walked the “Henro,” 800 miles to 88 of the island’s temples. Today, about 200,000 pilgrims visit the temples every year, sometimes walking, sometimes in cars or using public transportation. The Henro and many of the 88 temples are believed to have been founded by a monk named Kukai, who is a hero to the people of Shikoku.

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Tokushima, A Case of Mistaken Identity

2019, Japan, , , , , , , , View all 7 comments

Some of the puppets at Tokushima’s puppet museum.

Sometimes, all the travel planning in the world leads to surprises. For example, when I planned our Japan itinerary, I thought Tokushima on the island of Shokoku was going to be a small town and our accommodation there would in a small wooded village. Wrong.

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