Day 26

Weather: Rain in the morning- sunny by 3pm

Today I finished the 70s. Tomorrow I will tackle 80 – 82 (81 and 82 are in the mountains).

Got to temple 76 (Konzoji) at 7:00am and the rain started. The weather app said it would rain until noon and then be cloudy until 3 pm when the sun would come out. It was spot on!!! I was impressed!

I was the first henro at Konzoji and when I arrived there were a group of people doing morning stretches in the temple grounds.

Temple 77 (Doryuji) I was joined by a group of pushy bus henro. Their tour conductor rushed past me while I was getting my Nokyocho out to get her group’s Nokyocho done first (there where quite a lot) and the monk looked unperturbed at the action. I had run out of incense sticks so I went to buy them at the gift shop… that is when the henro group started trying to push me away from the cashier to get their souvenirs. That is when I said: Wait. Your. Turn. (sternly and in English) they looked sheepishly and stopped… not sure they understood the words but they understood the meaning. They were the first rude Henro group I have come across this whole trip.

Temple 78 (Goshoji) was much better. No rude henro group. They were travelling by bus so they probably already left this temple by the time I got there. Thank Buddha! This temple had beautiful wood reliefs in the ceiling of the awning of the temple.

There was also a shop? window filled with items made with 5 yen coins on the way to Goshoin.

The last temple of the day was Temple 79 (Tennoji). The rain stopped but it was still cloudy. This temple has both a temple and a shrine. (There was a period when temples and shrines were worshiped together in the same location, but with the separation ordinance of Buddhism and Shintoism in 1868 many shrines/ temples were relocated).