I was glad to be leaving Kochi city as it turned out be to different then I thought. It was a nice place, but i was eager to get moving agian. I chilled at Kochi station before I left as my train would be another hour. I grabbed a seat that looked out towards the city so I could people watch. Even though I had built some rest days into my schedule I had not really just sat still.
Any idle time was filled with going over my schedule, where I would be next, how I would get there and what I was going to have to eat that day.
For now, I just sat watching the people go by. All different kinds with all different events to attend. I love seeing people in transit. You see them in the in between. They are not stationary, acting part of an event, but transitioning to the event. What ever that might be. Also since I live in a place that doesn’t have insane mass transportation, this rare viewing is only part of the safari at an airport.
In my plans I was actually going to visit temple 36 today then head down the coast to Shimanto, but since I was able to visit it the day before I had a lot of time.
Temple 37, Iwamotoji
Off to Temple 37, Iwamotoji. Traveling down the coast line I got off at the Kubokawa station in Honmachi. It was a very cute little town that had a neat station connected to its town hall. The temple is close to the station, just a ten minute walk down the road and around a bend. Alot of these temples that are in towns or cities have a main gate that is standing with the rest of the buildings around it, but once you enter into the temple grounds things open up and give you some space. For instance this temple you turn into a small road that leads you down into the main gate and then into the temple grounds. It is all well integrated. When you walk through the main gate the temple office and a nice covered area is directly to your left. If you keep going forward the main temple lays right in front of you. Like many of the temples there is a cool statue of Kobo Daishi next to a nice tree. When I was at this temple I had a really intense sense of calmness. I can’t point to what it might be, maybe the quite town that it was in, the weather, or maybe even the people that were there with me at the temple. All I know is that it felt good and right.
Kobo Daishi
Cool Water Basin
Directly to the left when you walk through the main gates
Main Temple
I ended up taking the later train out of the city to Shimanto as I didn’t really need to be anywhere and well the tiny town was pretty nice. I grabbed some bread from a local dealer and chilled on some seating near the station.
What struck me in this time, is that being in the adventure isn’t like thinking about the adventure. I realized this early in my journey, but I really started to think about it now. When I walked among the streets of Tokushima and in the mountains, the only thing I wanted was for someone to open their door and tell me it was alright for me to stay with them. Give me some normalacy. To tell me I didn’t need to go anywhere for the next days, I could just live and work with them. And when I was in the mountains I prayed for someone to be with me, to have at least one companion out there among the trees and rocks. I wished that the weather would be nice and my pack would be instantly lighter.
Of course none of this happened. As I walked past the doors, none of them opened, as I walked up the mountain no friends came out to greet me. Being the main character, the adventurer and or the hero, is lonely business. It means doing things that others will not and being in those situations that no one else would be in. While other people take on the challenge (and even walk completely alone the whole thing) while you are doing it, it seems that there is no one else out there. Alone you quest to the temples. Alone you leave them and embark on to the next one. You meet great people along the way, see beautiful places, but you must leave them. You must quest on. Life doesn’t have to be this brutal, but I think if you are going to strive for more, you will encounter these things more then most. Discomfort is not a negative, it is merely a state of mind. As my feet hurt and shoulders yelled for blood flow, I could not stop. I had to keep going. As the rain poured and my shoes slipped upon rock, I couldn’t give up and turn around. Then I wouldn’t get to where I needed to go.
A frame of space, a moment in time, once past, is like a distant dream.
Shimanto
Shimanto is a small city with the Shimanto river running through it. The place I stayed at, the Royal Shimanto, was pretty nice. It was near a mall that had a convience store open and near the river. When I arrived I got into my room and decided to head out to park and take some photos of the river. In Japan there are a lot of parks like this, where the river runs through town and the banks of the river are very flat and wide. So their put parks and then a vertical set of stairs to descend into it. Dragonfly park, the one I was visiting was the same. It almost looked like some sort of savanna because they had these bushes that were so fuzzy and perfect looking. Pretty funny. They had a dirt tennis court where some girls were playing, when ever I see tennis being played in real life I always have the itch to get back into it. Great sport. I got some shots and the sun went down pretty quickly so I headed in for the night. The next day I would be busing it down to Ashizuri and then over to Sukumo.
Shimanto River and Dragon Fly Park
These trees reminded me of something out of a savanna
Imagine seeing this when you go to the park everyday
Temple 38, Kongfukuji
I would be visiting two temples today. Temple 38, Kongfukuji, which was in cape Ashizuri on the very south of the west peninsula and last, temple 39, Enkoji, which was in between Sukumo and Shimanto back up north. First I would travel two hours by bus down to cape Ashizuri. I give huge props to everyone who drives a bus in Japan. They have to maneuver this large bus among the tiniest roads I have ever seen and to swing around tiny mountain cliffs. There were some moments when I actually thought we might just fly into the sea.
But before I knew it the bus was pulling into this small parking lot and dropping me off. To my suprise it was very busy. Cars were flying by to park in the other parking lot down the street and people were walking in and out of the temple entrance. This must be a popular destination.
I walked up a elevated path and into the temple. Inside there was a slight wooden area that opened up to the main temple grounds. In the center running through alot of it was a pond. Stone bridges let you cross back and forth and some statues rose out of its murky waters. This was one of the unique temple layouts I had seen. To me it was pretty neat. It seemed at this temple it had a lot of statues that I had not seen before. The dark spire in the ground that looked like the staff I was carrying was new, and bigger statues of some of the artifacts that Kobo Daishi carried. I had around an hour to wander around so after visiting the temple I journeyed out into the cape. Down the road from the temple was parking where a couple of police were directing traffic in and out. Past that was the entrance to the cape. A small miniature village or something sat in a open space before heading in to the twisting trees. Unfortunately it was an overcast day, so when I go to the lookout point where I could see the water it all kind of blended together. But it was still awesome. It is a place that I would like to return to someday when the weather is nice.
Main Temple
Looking into the temple from the right side. This pond ran through a lot of the grounds
Kobo Daishi next to a spire. It looks like the staff that is carried by the henro.
Looking opposite way from other picture. They were doing some repairs on something in the water so there were al ot of maintenance workers all over the place. I tried to leave them out of the pictures.
This is one of my favorite shots to get. A lantern with the background blurred haha
I took the bus back up the coast and then to temple 39, Enkoji. I actually planned to take the train from Sukumo to this temple, but the bus actaully goes back up to Shimanto and then east towards Sukumo. So I got dropped off at the bus stop closest to that temple and made my way up. To tell you the truth probably 90% of the temples are up hill, even ones that are in town are elevated some how either with steeps roads, stairs or with tall hills sprouting out of nowhere to climb. This was a relaxed temple. It was not too busy and spacious. Nothing really was going on around it and it was removed from the main road. I ran into a young henro at this temple that I ended up following into Sukumo.
Turtle inland
Main Temple
It was early and town was only a couple of miles away so I decided to just walk the rest of the day. It was a pretty easy walk since there was a side walk the whole way. When no side walk is available, you are left walking on the side of the road, which is already small as it is, with the traffic speeding by. As I got into town the the other henro went in the opposite direction of me, but later that day after I had dinner it turned out he was staying at the same hotel as me. I gave him O-settai of some yen for something to drink when he needed it. Next I would be heading up the west coast to Uwajima for two nights.