I had two nights at my current hotel which was the MinshukuKuurashima it was nice inside and my room was Japanese style with a tatami floor and futons. My second day there it was raining outside and I decided not to go to temple 27, Konomineji, which is up the coast and looked to be a climb.
I am glad that I didn’t because the next day when I caught the bus to go up I was accompanied by a couple from Denmark. They were heading to the temple same time as I was so we decided to go together. Luckily we had heard that there was a cafe that allowed us to drop our stuff off before making the climb. This made it a lot easier because the path is pretty much a 25-40% incline up a road for an hour and then some stairs.
I tried to get something from the vending machine at the top, but everything was sold out. It also didn’t give me my money back. Konomineji is separated into platforms, the office is at the bottom then some stairs to the main temple which is on a long cliff side. We took a slight rest and then decended back down the mountain to get our stuff. I was actually staying on the way to Kochi in a cool place called the Royal Hotel Tosa. So I said goodbye to my friends from Denmark and got off to drop my stuff off before heading to complete the first temple in Kochi.
The hotel was nice, but it was not easy to get to. I had to walk about 20 minutes through town and up a pretty steep hill to get there. The place was nice and I believe that the Hanshin Tigers (a professional Japanese baseball team) was staying there the same time I was because they had their flags all over the place and it looked like some players were in the lobby. I felt sorta bad, because they had made the place look spik and span and had like 5 door men waiting and here I come in sweating profusely with all my gear. It all worked out though, I dropped my stuff off, grabbed my henro gear and went off to complete the first temple in Kochi.
Kochi was the first place other than Tokushima where there were a lot of temples that were “inside” the city. My biggest mistake on this trip was looking at a map from the sky and deciding I could go the distance. Like “Yeah that looks pretty close, maybe an hour or 45 minute walk” when in reality it is a 2 hour walk with hills and in the blazing sun with no shade.
With all that said, the first temple I went to in Kochi this day was nice. I got off the train, took a walk to temple 28, Dainichiji, felt good becuaes I was actually going to wait and do it the next day. Dainichiji was a standard temple. What I mean by that, is not that it wasn’t impressive, but it didn’t have any landmark features that stood out to me (but you never know, maybe I wasn’t looking) as I was leaving I ran into the Denmark couple again. I wished them luck and returned to my hotel. Back after temple 21 I started booking my hotels early, so I got a pretty good price on the Royal hotel. This place had one of my favorite onsens that I have come across so far. It had a nice indoor and outdoor area. The outdoor area had these cast iron pots that you sat in and let the water balance out around you. It was very relaxing. After this the trip was about to take a spin. I decided I was going to take the train to cover some of the long hauls and try to get to the temples so I could walk to each of them in there area. Before in Tokushima, there really wasn’t that option and the temples were all over the place and then flew into the mountains.