Day 22

Weather: Sunny.

This morning was a bit more expensive than I was planning for. I decided to take a bus that would stop close to Temple 57 (Eifukuji). When the bus arrived it wasn’t an ordinary city bus, but rather a highway coach used as a city bus! I was so surprised I left my walking poles by the bus stop. Instead of waiting an hour for a bus to go back to the station I called a cab and returned to the station, picked up my walking poles and had the cab drive me to Eifukuji. I didn’t want to waste time as I was trying to get to Temple 64 (skipping temple 60) today.

After I paid the cab fare, the driver gave me bottled tea, osembei, and some kind of puffed treats as osettai. (Osettai is a gift or help that someone gives a pilgrim to bring the giver good luck and lets the giver participate in the pilgrimage.)

I gave one puffed treat as an offering to Kobo Daishi to say “Thank you” and another to a fellow pilgrim who looked like they needed it more than me.

There was construction between Eifukuji and Temple 58 (Senyuji) so pilgrims who are walking have to take a detour. In all the excitement I only remembered to take a picture after I left Eifukuji.

On my way up to Senyuji, I was offered a ride as another osettai. The driver turned out to be a ceramist and there was a group of them setting up their goods before the Opera concert was to take place at Senyuji. It would have been nice to have stayed and take in the opera but it started at 2 pm and I was there at 8:45 am.

Senyuji always has some kind of flower in bloom throughout the year. The cherry trees are now mostly in leaf and the flowers in bloom are the mountain azaleas.

After Senyuji, it is a 6.2km walk to Temple 59 (Kokubunji).

There are 3 men I keep bumping into. One is a guy from the Netherlands, who likes to travel by himself and walks really quickly, and the other two are a Japanese man travelling with a Canadian guy from British Columbia. I have no idea what their names are. It is a bit weird, the first question people ask is, “Where are you from?” And they rarely ask after the person’s name. I have fallen into doing the same.

The reason I bring this up is because from Temple 57 to 59 I was kind of walking with Netherland man, but he would walk really fast and then wait for me at a sign he couldn’t understand and then take off again until the next sign. Definitely felt like the tortoise and the hare kinda situation.

At Kokubunji, Netherland man and I bumped into the Japanese guy and the Canadian guy. Kokubunji was the last temple for them today (even though it was only 12pm). They are going in order and Temple 60 is a hard one to get to.

Kokubunji had a life size Kobo Daishi where if one makes a wish and shake his hand, the wish is said to come true. But of course I didn’t take a photo of that…instead I took a picture of this guy:

I left the international guys and hopped on a train to Temple 61 (Koonji); walked to Temple 62 (Hojuji); and continued walking to Temple 63 (Kichijoji). By the time I left Kichijoji my feet were sore from walking on paved roads. I took a bus to Temple 64 (Maegamiji) and got my nyokasho stamped by 4pm (temples close at 5pm). As I was leaving I bumped into a guy I hadn’t seen since Temple 19. (Again no idea of his name only that he is from Israel). He told me that it is next to impossible to get a place to stay between temple 65 and 68… so now I’m going to have to try and figure out where to stay and how to get to these temples.