holy trip: September 2012

When I tell anyone about going on a pilgrimage in Japan, I get blank looks. Japan is not considered a Christian nation, and in fact, it is only 1% Christian. I have been to several Marian Apparition sites in Europe, and had heard about the others in other parts of the world, such as Guadalupe, Mexico, Aparecida in Brasil, Rwanda in Africa, and Vailkhanni in India. One of the less talked about approved apparition sites is in Akita, Japan.

Having recently moved to Southeast Asia, I had made plans to do as much travelling as possible. One of the top places on my itinerary was Japan, because I had always found the Japanese culture fascinating, both its history and the modern pop culture. So while planning my trip, I spoke to my uncle who had lived there recently, and he mentioned Akita, and going there with a tour group. As I mentioned before, I rarely join tour groups simply because I do things very impulsively.

So I went to Tokyo for 10 days. Somewhere in between I decided I would definitely go to Akita. So I found a bus company (Akita Dream Bus) which costed 9,100 Yen each way from Tokyo, for an overnight bus of 8 ½ hours. There are of course the bullet trains but these are highly expensive, and night buses save the money for 2 nights of accommodation. In the end, as my budget was as low as possible, a Japanese speaking friend of mine booked my ticket online and I managed to get the return journey tickets for 9,200 yen round trip.

The bus left JR Tokyo at midnight and arrived at 6:30am at JR Akita. To go straight to the shrine, you go to the East exit of JR Akita Station, and to Bus Stop number 4. On the bus, you collect a ticket with a number on it, and you watch the screen in front of the bus, when you reach your stop, the amount you need to pay is displayed according to the number on your ticket. The stops for the shrine are either Yuzawa or Yomogidakamityou (a better walk).

The walk from Yomogidakamityou is uphill for about 20 minutes, once you’re at the top; you take the first left, and first left again, and reach the shrine on the right after passing a cemetery. The view from the top of the hill is spectacular. At the shrine, there is Seitai Hoshikai Church itself, which is a beautiful structure with Japanese temple style roof, doors, and intricate wood carved beams. On the right of it is the convent, and to the left is a guest house. Unfortunately none of the sisters spoke English so I couldn’t ask as many questions as I would have liked. The opening hours of the Chapel are from 9:00-11:30am, and 1:00-4:30pm.

The church has two side chapels: the right hand side has a statue of St. Joseph, and on the left, where I spent all of my time, was the miraculous wood carved statue of the Virgin Mary, standing on a globe, with a cross behind her, and her arms outstretched downwards, this pose is a representation of an image of Our Lady of All Nations of the Netherlands.

The history of the place and the apparitions is this: A woman named Agnes Sasagawa had a conversion during her 20s and wanted to be a nun. She suffered from a botched appendix operation and went deaf. After drinking water from Lourdes, she was healed of the appendix pain and eventually became a nun in Akita. In 1973, Sister Sasagawa received the stigmata, and on the same day, the right hand of the statue of Our Lady began to bleed. The blood was sent for examination, and found to be real human blood. The statue then began to cry human tears (also tested in a laboratory in Tokyo) for six years a total of 101 times. Pilgrims flocked to the site until the tears eventually stopped. There were also three messages given to Sister Sasagawa very similar to those of Fatima, including a prophecy that her deafness would be healed, and it happened during a Mass in 1982.

To accommodate all the pilgrims and the curious, a guest house was built, with two beautiful gardens, one of them that has a long pathway with the Stations of the Cross, and another, Mary’s garden, which has a statue of Our lady smiling, surrounded by multi-coloured well kempt Japanese plants, a very peaceful place to sit and pray. I managed to pray the Stations of the Cross in the garden, and spent most of it in the shrine at the chapel of Our Lady. The sister there was very kind and gracious to me despite our language barrier, and even let me stay locked inside during the lunchtime break when the chapel should have been closed.