March 1

We awoke to a breakfast is ready call at 6 and joined the other two Henoes. Like last night our host wanted to keep giving us more food. The white container above the tomatoes is nato. It isn’t our favorite food, but we are learning to like it and we figure anything fermented should be good for you.

Last night we slept in a western style bed, listening to the rain hitting the roof. This morning the sun is our and we are ready to begin our hike. Temple 23 will be at the end of the hike today. Our host wanted to make sure that we didn’t get confused going thru the town so he drew us a map.

He retrieved our shoes. When we took them off last night they were wet and very muddy. He had cleaned and dried them. We need to pass on the kindness we have been shown.

Today’s walk will take us over several passes and down to the coast. First though we follow the map that he has drawn thru the streets of the town. At a street corner we were greeted by a woman who almost seemed like she was waiting for us. She had a big smile on her face as she handed us two rolls of bread and said osettai. She spoke no English and about all we could say was arigato gozaimasu (thank-you) We have been carrying stickers from Alaska and some are pictures of the Northern Lights We handed her one and she motioned for us to stay while she went into her house. She returned with a little green drawstring bag which she gave to us and said Osettai. That was a great way to start the morning. We stopped at a rest area before heading up to the pass. We also got to experience going thru tunnels today. From some of our readings, one should always use caution when walking thru a tunnel. These however had sidewalks and were lit. Not bad! They are noisy with traffic noises echoing along the walls. We picked up our pace to get thru the tunnels faster.

The benches are in a circle, not a good place to take a nap.

A friendly figure telling us we are on the right path.

The trail was a bit overgrown as we headed up to the pass.

Sometimes these are words of encouragement, other times just stating that this is the Pilgrimage Trail.

There is a sign pointing to a view point that is off trail. With a clear blue sky day it seems that is the place to go.

Not only was the view stunning, there was a swing there as well to use while looking at the ocean.

We both took turns. When we arrived to the view point we met a Henro from England called Connie. She was doing a year of travel and falling in love with Japan. She has been visiting extra temples along the way called Bekkaku. There are 20 of them. Some of them are close to the 88 route and others will take a day more to travel to visit them. We plan to see couple of them.

Connie is staying in the same town that we are going to, but not the same guest house.Not sure if our paths will cross again. She takes our photo as well.

This day is such a contrast from yesterday when we were wearing most of our clothes and the rain was dumping.

Eventually we had to give up the swing and move on to town. The trail takes us down to the coast and the path varies from walking on nature trails or on pavement. This part of the trail is going to be scenic! In the distance we can see the temple. We know there is a lot of stairs there and it would be nice to leave our packs somewhere before arriving there. Almost on cue a woman across the street who has a white vest on, asks if we are going to the guest house. There are several guest houses so we say yes and the name of it is Oyado Hiwasa. She said, “I am staying there as well, it is down this street and you should leave your packs there before going to the temple. “ I guess that was Kobo Dashi looking out for us. We head to the guest house and meet the owner. We can put our packs in our room and head to the temple. The male owner is from France and his wife is Japanese. They both speak English which is always helpful. They have remodeled the house, but have kept the design as close to possible as the original. Since the temple closes at 5, we head to it, but plan on talking more to the owners about lodging for the next several night when we return.

On the way to the temple we see this painting on the side of the building.

It is a warning about tsunamis! We are going to be in an area that they could occur.

Yakuoji, is a well visited temple. It is also the last one in the Tokushima prefecture. The next temple that we visit will be in the Kochi prefecture. It is known for all the stairs that lead to the different buildings, We enter the gate.

There are stairs for females as well as males. I begin the ascent on the female side.

Some steps take you to the main hall. Other steps take you to a single tower that is square on top and cylindrical on the bottom. It is supposed to show the harmony between Earth and Heaven.

An interesting observation was seeing money that people put on the steps as they climbed to the various buildings.

An older women near one of the halls approached us and began bowing to us. She spoke a little English and said that she had seen us walking on the road. She was very animated and gave us several pieces of candy for osettai.

We had a long conversation with the owner on our return to the guest house. When we told him that we had a tent, he said that we should have no problem camping for the next three nights. We are looking forward to that. This guest house doesn't serve meals, but there was an excellent restaurant near by. We meet Andreas from Germany who is staying in the same guest house.We agree that it was a five star. After dinner we headed over to an ice cream store to have a fitting end for the day.

The room we stayed in had thin walls, but we were either too tired to hear our neighbors or they were very quiet.

Accommodation GH Oyado Hiwasa

Miles walked 15