The means of Transportation
・How can I get to Shikoku?
・May I get on a bus when I get tired?
・Is it possible to complete Ohenro(the pilgrimage) only by bus and train?
・One can find the time and fare tables of bus and train on internet?
・Is the function of Google map good enough to complete the pilgrimage?
・Is there a paid guidance service to enable the visit to fudashos at the top of the mountain?
・Tell us how to call a taxi.
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How can I get to Shikoku?
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You may visit the following site.
[ Awa Navi ]
[ Shikoku District Official Tourism Site ]
[ English Anabuki Travel ]
2016.05
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May I get on a bus when I get tired?
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The bus service is not available everywhere. In many cases you must walk on even though you get tired.
If you don’t have confidence in your physical strength, it is wiser to give up the idea of walking and choose to either join a tour or travel by taxi or car.
2016.05
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Is it possible to complete Ohenro(the pilgrimage) only by bus and train?
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Most Fudashos are located away from the railway stations and so it is not convenient to travel by train.
In the countryside bus stops are rather sparsely located. And so sometimes you must walk several kilometers to get there and catch a bus.
If you think of making the pilgrimage by a means of transportation,「Shikoku 88 NAVI」a pamphlet by Shikoku Transport Bureau,｢Shikoku 88 NAVI｣ will offer you useful information.
「English edition’s page」contains the time tables for bus.
Taxi is rather expensive. But by taking taxi with other people, you can make it less expensive.
2016.05
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One can find the time and fare tables of bus and train on internet?
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[ Tranfer information ]etc will tell you how to transfer and offer you the time table of bus service. But you must know first of all which bus route to take when for instance the point of departure and the destination are given.
At present (2016) Google map is helpless in the country side since it does not cover all the bus route.
About the public transportation, see「Shikoku 88NAVI」
About the time tables for bus service, see「English edition’s page」
2016.05
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Is the function of Google map good enough to complete the pilgrimage?
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Google map is helpful to get to fudashos in the city. Only that the routes Google map gives you are the shortcuts for the destination and thus often not identical with Henro-michi.
Google map does not contain small roads in the mountainous regions and thus its guidance may terminate halfway through. Further, Google map, as it actually happened, can guide you into a road impossible to drive on.
To visit a fudasho in the deep mountain you may find the right path on the local direction board. Or you may make use of the paper map and compass to find it out.
You may also download the data of the Ohenro route through [ おへんろ電子道標 ](Ohenro electronic signpost) ]and show it on the offline map (Geographica MAPS.ME etc) to locate the route to follow.
There are a few smart phone applications supporting pilgrimage. They all utilize the Google navigation and thus one should be careful about their use in the mountainous regions.
2016.05
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Is there a paid guidance service to enable the visit to fudashos at the top of the mountain?
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In the cities useful information services are available, such as the transfer information of Google map and other paid services. They are, however, useless in the mountains where the electromagnetic wave of mobile phone is out of reach, like the region around the 60th fudasho Yokomineji-temple.
When I (the writer) tested it, it took a long time to receive the wave. Then the route shown on the screen was a wrong one. I found only a straight line on the white background, which doesnt make any sense. I began worrying about the loss of electricity of the battery and switched it off.
If you do want to use GPS, then you put on your smart phone a offline map and the data of Henro-michi or get a GPS for mountain climbing.
2016.05
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