2013.06.29 01:00 - On a Pilgrimage

eliza posted this session from the auto-listener database...

[01:23] Wol Euler: good morning, hana, sorry I'm late
[01:24] Hana Furlough: no worries!
[01:24] Hana Furlough: good morning, wol!
[01:24] Hana Furlough: sorry to make you move
[01:24] Wol Euler smiles.
[01:24] Wol Euler: no worries!
[01:24] Wol Euler: how's life?
[01:25] Hana Furlough: not bad

[01:25] Hana Furlough: congrats on finishing your project
[01:25] Wol Euler: oh no, not finished yet :/ One more week.
[01:26] Hana Furlough: oh no
[01:26] Hana Furlough: then hang in there!
[01:26] Wol Euler: this was just a forced break :)
[01:26] Wol Euler: some things cannot be rescheduled
[01:26] Wol Euler: thanks
[01:26] Hana Furlough: i bet it will keep you going through the end
[01:26] Wol Euler: hopefully :)
[01:27] Wol Euler: and I have a holiday coming up in August

[01:28] Hana Furlough: me too!
[01:28] Hana Furlough: any plans?
[01:28] Wol Euler: excellent :)
[01:28] Wol Euler: yes, a wedding anniversary of friends who met in SL and married in RL, and then a week or two with my parents in Toronto
[01:28] Hana Furlough: oh nice
[01:29] Wol Euler: looking forward to both of those

[01:29] Wol Euler: what are your plans?
[01:29] Hana Furlough: i don't have any yet
[01:29] Hana Furlough: i was thinking of going on a pilgrimage
[01:29] Wol Euler: 0h!
[01:29] Wol Euler: do tell
[01:31] Hana Furlough: i was thinking of heading to the mountains, to the ancient pilgrimage route of kumano
[01:32] Wol Euler listens.
[01:32] Hana Furlough: i haven't been but i've always wanted to go
[01:32] Hana Furlough: a few months ago, my friend gave me a guide book
[01:32] Hana Furlough: and that made me want to go even more

[01:33] Hana Furlough: have you ever gone on a pilgrimage?
[01:33] Wol Euler: not really, no
[01:33] Wol Euler: it sounds wonderful, and I would encourage you to do it
[01:33] Hana Furlough: yeah, i hope i can
[01:33] Wol Euler: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kumano_Kod%C5%8D
[01:33] Hana Furlough: yes! that is it!

[01:34] Hana Furlough: where is your favorite sacred place, wol?
[01:34] Wol Euler: oh, that's hard to say
[01:35] Wol Euler: Corbusier's chapel in Ronchamp, in France, is a lovely place
[01:36] Wol Euler: perhaps my favourite of places I've actually been to :)
[01:36] Hana Furlough: oh wow
[01:36] Wol Euler: there's a large temple complex in Higashiyama, whose name I could look up, many relatively small buildings connected by walkways among the trees
[01:36] Hana Furlough: (googling)
[01:37] Hana Furlough: Kiyomizudera?
[01:37] Wol Euler: not big buildings like at Choin-Ji
[01:37] Wol Euler: um, is that the red painted platform that overhangs a valley?
[01:37] Hana Furlough: yes

[01:38] Wol Euler: it's great too, but not what I meant; the one I am thinking of is right in the middle of the city
[01:38] Hana Furlough: hmm
[01:38] Hana Furlough: (looks out window to higashiyama for clues)
[01:38] Hana Furlough: eikando?
[01:39] Wol Euler: the name is familiar, I'm looking at google maps satellite view to see if I recognize it
[01:39] Hana Furlough: no worries if you can't remember
[01:40] Hana Furlough: this chapel is amazing
[01:40] Hana Furlough: the inside especially
[01:40] Wol Euler nods.

[01:40] Wol Euler: it stands on a hilltop, the wind whistles around it
[01:41] Hana Furlough: ahh incredible
[01:42] Hana Furlough: i hope i can go there someday
[01:42] Wol Euler: it's not far from Plum Village, at least not far to an American :)
[01:42] Hana Furlough: haha
[01:43] Hana Furlough: yes, not far can be quite a distance to us
[01:43] Wol Euler smiles.

[01:43] Wol Euler: like driving 150km to pick berries in a particular spot, then driving back again
[01:44] Hana Furlough: yeah, i've heard of that
[01:44] Wol Euler: I've actually done that, with cousins :)
[01:44] Hana Furlough: haha nice
[01:47] Wol Euler: perhaps Americans are willing to travel such long distances because there's nothing between A and B to show how far you have travelled
[01:47] Hana Furlough: interesting
[01:47] Wol Euler: for me, 150km would be going from Stuttgart to say Ulm
[01:47] Hana Furlough: i always just felt like it was inevitable
[01:47] Hana Furlough: yes, that would be very far for me here, too

[01:47] Wol Euler: even on the autobahn you'd pass through a dozen largeish cities; if you took country roads it might be sixty villages or more
[01:48] Wol Euler: but that berry expedition went from empty-nowhere to empty-nowhere
[01:48] Hana Furlough: yeah, that sounds about right
[01:48] Wol Euler: well, the pilgrimage sounds wonderful
[01:49] Hana Furlough: yes! i hope i can make it happen
[01:49] Wol Euler: and strenuous :) three 1000-metre mountain passes?
[01:49] Hana Furlough: i'm not sure i would do the whole thing
[01:49] Wol Euler smiles.
[01:49] Hana Furlough: probably just a portion, considering the weather and the fact that i only have a few days

[01:49] Hana Furlough: it would be amazing to do it all, though
[01:49] Wol Euler: ah, yes, of course
[01:49] Wol Euler: and yes, it definitely would
[01:50] Hana Furlough: i knew one person who did
[01:50] Hana Furlough: in the old fashioned way
[01:50] Hana Furlough: amazing
[01:50] Wol Euler listens.
[01:50] Hana Furlough: i think she camped for part of the way
[01:50] Hana Furlough: it sounded life-changing
[01:50] Hana Furlough: i bet something like that would be
[01:50] Wol Euler: very likely :)

[01:51] Wol Euler: I had a tourist sampler version of the Camino de Santiago a few years ago, which wasn't a pilgrimage as such
[01:52] Wol Euler: we walked some of the way, wiht a bus for the luggage and to get across the hard bits
[01:52] Wol Euler: but even so it was very moving
[01:52] Wol Euler: I'd love to do it all properly some day
[01:52] Hana Furlough: wow
[01:52] Hana Furlough: i bet
[01:52] Hana Furlough: were there tiny shrines along the way?
[01:52] Wol Euler: fewer than I expected
[01:53] Wol Euler: it#s not like the Monte ... whatever, forgotten, near Milano
[01:53] Wol Euler: there are a few statues and some chapels in the towns that it passes through, but these are incidental
[01:53] Wol Euler: it's not like a threaded bead necklace of places
[01:53] Hana Furlough: oh interesting

[01:54] Wol Euler: it is very much about the dirt under your feet, and the single goal at the end
[01:54] Wol Euler: I found myself envying the pilgrims as we passed them
[01:54] Hana Furlough: wow
[01:54] Hana Furlough: amazing
[01:54] Wol Euler smiles.
[01:55] Wol Euler: we were definitely not pilgrims, not when I looked at them
[01:55] Hana Furlough: hehe
[01:55] Wol Euler: I was almost embarrassed, and I am definitely embarrassed and annoyed when my mother tells people that we have done the Camino
[01:55] Wol Euler: because it is so obviously not true

[01:55] Hana Furlough: yeah, i suspect my limited excursion will pale in comparison to people doing the whole thing
[01:56] Hana Furlough: haha!
[01:56] Wol Euler: so do it in stages :)
[01:56] Hana Furlough: ooh good idea
[01:56] Wol Euler: we met a couple from France who had been doing it for eight summers, they do 150 km a summer
[01:56] Wol Euler: because that's what htey can manage both in time and distance
[01:56] Hana Furlough: that's really smart
[01:56] Hana Furlough: yeah
[01:57] Wol Euler: I hope it will work out for you, hana
[01:58] Hana Furlough: thank you!
[01:58] Hana Furlough: i'll keep you posted
[01:58] Wol Euler: please do :)
[01:58] Hana Furlough: the route itself isn't too far from kyoto, so i should be able to manage a few days

[01:59] Wol Euler: if I may offer a tip from my limited experience: buy the best boots you can find, choose very carefully, and spend a month wearing them everywhere
[01:59] Hana Furlough: ahh smart!
[02:01] Hana Furlough: i love the scallop symbol
[02:02] Wol Euler: I bought mine in a sports store that had a treadmill with video camera so you could see yourself walking in them
[02:02] Wol Euler: and a professional adviser who came every thursday to give advice
[02:02] Hana Furlough: interesting
[02:02] Hana Furlough: that sounds useful
[02:02] Wol Euler: well actually if you are only going to be out for a week that is probably overkill. You do need good boots, definitely, but a week isn't long enough for major problems to occur unless htey were badly chosen
[02:03] Wol Euler: there were people we saw on the Camino whose feet were skinned raw, as though flayed :/
[02:03] Hana Furlough: which is a possibility, considering i know very little about hiking attire
[02:03] Hana Furlough: oh dear
[02:03] Hana Furlough: that's bad
[02:03] Wol Euler: yep
[02:04] Wol Euler: I would expect that there is something like that treadmill/video/advisor in Kyoto
[02:04] Hana Furlough: oh yeah i can imagine that there would be
[02:04] Wol Euler: in fact I would be astonished if there weren't, given the general Japanese super-competence :)
[02:05] Hana Furlough: haha yes, there is a lot of amazing hiking attire here
[02:05] Wol Euler: start shopping early, and shop around before buying, and consider that you are shopping for advice just as much as for gear
[02:06] Hana Furlough: that's good advice
[02:06] Wol Euler smiles.

[02:07] Wol Euler: hehehe, I'm sitting here getting happy and excited on your behalf :)
[02:07] Wol Euler: I hope this works out for you, hana
[02:07] Hana Furlough: thank you!
[02:07] Hana Furlough: pictures will be shared, if indeed it happens!
[02:07] Wol Euler grins.

[02:08] Hana Furlough: so what's on your agenda today?
[02:09] Wol Euler: shopping, then work
[02:09] Wol Euler: we have a lot left to do
[02:09] Hana Furlough: the final push?
[02:09] Wol Euler: yep
[02:09] Hana Furlough: well, hang in there
[02:09] Wol Euler smiles.
[02:09] Wol Euler: thanks
[02:10] Wol Euler: we'll get there, in some way or othe
[02:10] Hana Furlough: i can relate, we are getting to the end of the semester
[02:10] Hana Furlough: i'm tired, the students are tired,
[02:10] Wol Euler nods.
[02:10] Hana Furlough: there's a lot of material that needs to be covered
[02:10] Hana Furlough: papers to be written and graded
[02:10] Hana Furlough: although, i imagine this is not as stressful as your deadline
[02:10] Hana Furlough: we have more time
[02:11] Wol Euler: mmhmm
[02:11] Wol Euler: and the consequences are lower
[02:11] Wol Euler: if a student fails, they can retake the course
[02:11] Hana Furlough: yes, for sure
[02:11] Wol Euler: if we fail we throw away three or four person-months of work, plus the material costs
[02:12] Wol Euler: but it won't fail :)
[02:12] Hana Furlough: no, it won't!

[02:12] Wol Euler: I always say that "finished" is a flexible expression :)
[02:12] Wol Euler: we will finish
[02:12] Hana Furlough: it is!
[02:12] Hana Furlough: i felt that way about my dissertation
[02:12] Hana Furlough: it will never be finished, but there is a time to stop
[02:13] Wol Euler: yep :)
[02:13] Wol Euler: you can spend anohter year polishing the book, if you wish
[02:13] Hana Furlough: that's my hope
[02:14] Hana Furlough: well, i should let you get to your day
[02:14] Hana Furlough: i'm headed to the market myself so i can make dinner
[02:14] Wol Euler smiles.
[02:14] Wol Euler: bon appetit
[02:15] Hana Furlough: thanks!
[02:15] Hana Furlough: pleasant chatting as always
[02:15] Wol Euler: very much so!
[02:15] Wol Euler: take care, hana, enjoy your sunday
[02:15] Hana Furlough: thank you!
[02:15] Hana Furlough: bye for now!
[02:15] Wol Euler waves.