Weather: Rain (again)
I was under the impression that the best time to visit Japan was March and April because the weather is nice. The one good thing I can say about the rain is that it isn’t too hot and actually make the temperature pleasant for walking.
Today I got to sleep in a bit and didn’t get up until 6:00am. Usually, I’m up at 5:00am or 5:30am in order to have breakfast do last minute repackaging and out the door by 7:00am. This morning though, Ito-san from the Inn gave me and a German woman who was staying at the same inn a ride to the station. So we set out a bit later. The train had a balcony on the side, but it was too cold and too wet to enjoy.
I got off at Tonohama station and made my way up to Temple 27 (Konomineji.) It is only 4.2km but starting at the station at sea level the temple is near the top of the mountain at 424.6m.
I have put everything in a plastic bags. Because of all the rain the last couple of days everything is soaking wet! Luckily the place I’m staying tonight in Konan city has a dryer. Yay for warm dry clothes!
When I got to the top my faithful Henro bag fell apart. It got soaked by all the rain, bits of the inside plastic was coming off in flakes, but the biggest injury to the bag was the rip where the strap meets the bag. I would’ve taken a picture, but I’ll give the bag a bit of dignity. May it rest in pieces. 😉 I now have a new handy dandy henro bag.
On my way to Konan I stopped off at Aki. The town has an old Samurai Residence Street and an area that was once a castle but is now a Museum of local folk traditions (I was not allowed to take any pictures – they had Girls’ Day Festival dolls on display and I was given a pamphlet). Aki is also the birthplace of Yataro Iwasaki (the founder of Mitsubishi company)… I did not go to his childhood home.
KotsuKotsuLife 