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.

Tomorrow I’m doing Temple 60.

Weather: sunny (a bit misty and cool in the mountain morning)

The guest house let me keep my rucksack with them while I went to Temple 45 (Iwayaji). Which was nice of them and I took the first bus to the base of the temple.

Buses and trains in Japan are extremely reliable. If it says there’s going to be at a bus at 8:11am there will be a bus at 8:11am. The only thing about buses in rural areas (read: most of Shikoku) is that if you miss the bus, you might have to wait an hour to two hours until the next bus.

The bus stop for the temple, as per norm, is at the bottom of the hill/mountain. And it says it is only 0.7 km. Great! Except it is up a hill and many steps.

In the end it wasn’t too bad. And I bumped into an Australian couple who were travelling in a skirt and kilt, respectively.

At the top and beside one of the temples there was a ladder to go to a cave above the temple. Some people might think it stupid to go all that way and not climb it – in my case – given I’m accident prone… it would have been stupid for me to climb it. And just as stupid, if not more so, for me to do a circular route that puts one on a cliff face to see where Kukai did his training. One needs a key from the monk in the office to do this trip. Needless to say, I did not ask for the key.

I started to walk back to Temple 44 (Daihoji) and my rucksack at the guest house and got as far as an onsen hotel, where I saw the bus schedule – and if I waited 15 minutes I could catch it most of the way back.

I got on the bus and we travelled a little ways when we stopped and picked up the Aussies, an American, and a Japanese. Apparently, they have been travelling together since around Temple 13. (There were 2 other Americans travelling with them, but they were doing the crazy cliff side circular route).

I ended up travelling with them back to Temple 44 where we parted ways only to meet up again on a bus that brings us to a pass where we walk to a Ryokan in front of Temple 46 (Joruriji). It was too late to visit Joruriji, but it turns out we are all staying at the same Ryokan.

Tomorrow I will be travelling with this self proclaimed motley crew.