Day 6
After taking a rest I was ready for another long haul. I had decided that after temple 22 I would use the train and bus a little bit more to get me through some of the long stretches. While I will be walking to the temples, some of the route is following the road for miles at a time. For instance today, temple 18 Onzanji and temple 19 tatsueji are south of Tokushima in the suburbs, so to get there I followed the main high way for about 4 hours to get down there.
The day started well though. As I packed up my stuff and got outside the hotel it started to rain, which I knew it would, so I started to put on all my rain gear. One of the hotel receptionists saw me and asked if I needed an umbrella (you could buy one at the front door), but I already has so much stuff and rain gear covered most of it, so I politely decline. As I finished getting everything put together she came out and handed me an umbrella telling me it was a gift. I couldn’t refuse now, so I took it. And boy, was I glad I did.
That day I did use it, but it was really the next day that it came in super handy. The walk was un-interesting, just walking among the cars and stop lights till it finally died down into the country side where the streets got narrower and far between. Temple 18 was off the main streets up in the hills. I am not a big fan of these type of temples. They are close enough to town, but just far enough away to be isolated. There was a nice path that was off the road, but as I learned, these paths can be extremely steep and not the easiest to traverse. Especially in the rain. I also noticed that the temples that are a little more remote, but not in the mountains, don’t seem to be taken care of as much as ones in the mountains or right in the cities, which lends to an odd feelings. After getting my book stamped I made my way back to town and headed more south to temple 19. By the time I got there the rain started coming down even harder and I was ready to just be dry, but my lodging for the night didn’t check in till 3 pm which was 3 hours from then. So I headed to the only convenience store in town and got something to eat.
There is something neat about being part of a journey others are taking as well. In Japan the convenience stores are filled with everything that you might need. Hot and cold food. Food that they will microwave for you, fresh bread and sandwiches and all sorts of things. They even have a place you can sit and eat your food, which I took advantage of. As I sat and slurped some microwaved noodles a guy that sat to my left asked if I was doing the 88 shrines (my hat and staff sat next to me). Turns out he was completing the 88 shrines as well. Here sat next to me was Kent, a retired guy from Malaysia. He had completed the Camino several times, and planned to complete the triple crown in the upcoming years, but had head of this and after being injured decided to see what Shikoku was all about. Kent was very well rounded. He had traveled all around the world and kept up on all the news and economies of different places. We shared stories of our journey so far and discussed the future plans for the trip.
My place to stay was called the Fun Farm which was a guest house ran by the nicest couple.
Day 7
When looking at the elevation map and thinking “yeah temple 12 was hard, but I think I will be okay, because this is only two mountains instead of three” at the beginning of the day I felt confident. The weather said rain only in the early morning then sun shine and my host had my me breakfast which was great. When I left the sun was shining and everything seemed to have dried off.
Then about 10 minutes later it starts raining. Then pouring. I check the forecast again. It is stated to rain the rest of the morning. I put all my rain gear on, pulled out the umbrella that I am thankful to have now and kept going. The beginning of the mountains are always pretty easy. They are small paths leading through the trees, but then the slopes start getting steeper, and then stairs start. First it is log stairs then just cuts in the rocks that lead you up. So I ended up ascending a mountain again, in the rain. I won’t go over to much since my post about temple 12 sums up the experience again.
After around about 2 hours of climbing I reached the top. Temple 20 is pretty condensed. Once you get to the top the main temple, I think some dorms and the temple office are all crammed into the same spot. It was still raining so I found a dry spot to set my stuff down and went through the rituals. There were two tour groups when I was there. A foreign tour group that was leaving when I was getting my book stamped and a Japanese tour group. As I sat eating trying to escape the rain I looked out into the distance and into the fog. To get to temple 21, I had go down the mountain and ascend another mountain. Around 500m on each mountain (would you call it a mountain?) Anyway as I stared out the Japanese tour group had gotten its books stamped and was leaving when a man stopped and asked me where I was heading. I must of looked weary or something, because when I told him temple 21 he said he had room on his bus if I wanted to ride. I agreed. It was luck, fate , maybe Kobo Daishi was saying it was okay to get some help, but I took it. I threw my self on that bus with so much politeness and gratitude I still cannot believe it happened the way it did. Let me tell you, taking a tour bus, is the way to go. It was a great ride, some of the people on the bus talked me about their trip and the host would get on the loud speaker and say some things about where we were going . It was fantastic. When we reached the base of temple 21 the man that offered me the ride wanted a picture with me haha. The most friendly of all people.
Temple 21 has a ropeway that can take you to the temple. If you walk from 20 to 21 you end up on the opposite side of the mountain so you cannot take it. My lodgings were actually at the base of the ropeway so it all worked out. I have to say so far on this journey, temple 21 has been my favorite. The ropeway was neat, though scary at times just hanging above the trees, the way I got there was something else and the temple was beautiful. I posted a lot of the pictures on my Instagram as I had left my stuff down at the lodge. Which now that I look back at it , I should have brought my camera up with me. Missed oppurtunity.
Over all the day started unfortunately and ended fortunate. I had a great end of the day and met some amazing people.