Hiroko Yoda

I started walking Yamabushi in cold winter, actually, in the last few years or so, in Yamagata Prefecture.

And it's called the New Year's, actually New Year's pilgrimage.

But deep mountains, deep mountains.

And we walk.

And I realized that how youthful that animal pelt was.

Because on the lunchtime, we have to sit down.

We have to sit down on the snow.

You really want to add a little pelt when you have to sit down on the snow.

It's warm.

See, I am always wearing ski pants.

Of course, it's some kind of a protection from the ice, snow, but it eventually gets wet.

So it really makes sense.

But the thing is, well, my experience that I had was in Nara, and we were walking on the concrete path with a lot of tourists.

So their clothes, their attire, it's kind of strange, but it really works in a mountain.

Yes.

Yes.

See, the thing is, what I learned from Shigendo is that not just Shigendo, it's spirituality as a whole.

As for Japanese people, the spirituality is a tool.

It's a tool to heal ourselves, tool to nourish the sense of belongingness or cultivate the happiness.

So for the Yamabushi,