Hourousha

... in the autumn of 1688, in his mid-40s, [the Japanese haiku poet] Basho confided to friends that he still felt the world was too much with him. Exhausted from the incessant demands of students ... he said that he "felt the breezes from the afterlife cross his face."

http://ngm.nationalgeographic.com/2008/02/bashos-trail/howard-norman-text/1

So in the following spring he set out on foot, wandering across the countryside of Japan.

This coming week I will set out, not on foot, but nevertheless making my way to and wandering around the countryside of Japan. Again.

The Japanese word is ほうろうしゃ ... hourousha, a wanderer. Whatever melancholy Basho faced, he found consolation in, as he put it, "the journey of a weather-beaten skeleton."

As old friends know, I've spent part of the last couple of summers in China and Japan. For others, see my blog archives to the right of this entry.

This year I'll take seven weeks to go ... well, I don't know where, yet. But I'll fly into Tokyo, get settled, and then venture out. Some likely stops include areas around and near Nagoya, Kyoto, Okayama, Hiroshima, Nagano, and Niigata. See the map above.

I vaguely have a few places in mind that I'd like to see, but they're not typical tourist destinations, and they're somewhat obscure and remote. Beyond that, I'll just see where the wind blows.

But I'll keep you posted and, as usual, I'll blog as I go. Feel free to come along.

としくれぬ
かさきてわらじ
はきながら

toshi kurenu
kasa kite waraji
hakinagara

another year is gone:
a travel hat on my head
straw sandals on my feet

(Basho)