Author: Alessio Romito

  • The mental challenge

    The mental challenge

    Mens sana in corpore sano, the Latins used to say. A sound mind in a healthy body. You should aim at achieving this status, during your pilgrimage. It’s not an easy task, however, on both the physical and the mental sides. As experienced during the Camino, your first enemy is your brain: see that town […]

  • The physical challenge

    The physical challenge

    Trying to learn Japanese is not the only thing I’m supposed to do, in order to prepare for the Shikoku pilgrimage. Three years of living in Germany have left me the gift of a sizeable beer belly that it’s very difficult to get rid of. One month away from my departure for Japan, I am […]

  • The language challenge

    The language challenge

    A-I-U-E-O Ka-Ki-Ku-Ke-Ko And so it goes… As soon as I land on Shikoku, the biggest challenge will be to communicate with the natives there. Learning Japanese is no easy challenge, but it’s also not impossible. They do have three different alphabets (better call them “syllabaries”) though. And they can use these three writing systems together […]

  • Preparing the equipment

    Preparing the equipment

    What am I going to bring to Japan? This question has been in my head for the last few days. Even though my article (in Italian) about what to put in your bag for the Camino has been one of the most successful on my blog, I still haven’t fully decided on what exactly to […]

  • Announcing my next travel

    Announcing my next travel

    The time for the big announcement has finally come. This blog was started with the idea of telling the story of this travel in particular: the Shikoku Henro. As described on Wikipedia, it’s a multi-site pilgrimage on the Japanese island of Shikoku, around 1200 Km long. It will be the first time for me outside […]