She decides then and there to go back to Japan almost immediately: to walk the henro michi, and walk herself back to health.īrushing aside the barriers that other people might find daunting – the 1,200km of mountainous terrain, the sweltering Japanese summer, the fact she has no money and has never done a multiday hike before – Lisa is determined to walk the pilgrimage – or die trying. And then, completely by chance, the henro michi comes back into her life, through a book at her local library. I’ve also been following her blogging for a while, so I went. I should probably flag it here that I interviewed Lisa for Yartz just before the Emerging Writers’ Festival, and she seemed absolutely lovely. Read this book using Google Play Books app on your PC, android, iOS devices.

Severely depressed, socially withdrawn, overweight, on the dole and living with her mum, she is 28 and miserable. The first thing I picked up off that pile was Neon Pilgrim by Lisa Dempster, which I bought from the EWF Page Parlour a few weeks ago. Neon Pilgrim - Ebook written by Lisa Dempster. Perfectly suiting the romantic view of herself as a dusty, travel-worn explorer (well, one day), she promises to return to Japan and walk the henro michi, one. But when her life needs a shake-up, she decides the only thing for it is to hike the henro michi, a 1200 kilometre Buddhist pilgrimage through the mountains of Japan. Perfectly suiting the romantic view of herself as a dusty, travel-worn explorer (well, one day), she promises to return to Japan and walk the henro michi, one way or another, as soon as humanely possible.įast-forward 13 years, and Lisa’s life is vastly different to what she pictured it would be. Seriously unfit and unmotivated, Lisa Dempster is an unlikely candidate for a gruelling outdoor adventure. During a culture-shocked exchange year in Japan, 15-year-old Lisa Dempster’s imagination is ignited by the story of the henro michi, an arduous 1,200-kilometre Buddhist pilgrimage through the mountains of Japan.