March 22
We heard the sounds of the town far below greeting the morning. We packed up and continued our climb upwards. We passed this memorial close to our hut.
When we reached the top, we could look down and see the town that we were going to spend the night.
We could have walked the coastal route to the town, if the weather had been marginal we would have. The days were sunny and we enjoyed the challenge of going up and over the mountain. We stopped to have lunch along a river and met Teru. He was standing next to the river looking perplexed. His sandwich had just been stolen out of his hand by a sea gull. He lives in Northern Japan and always wanted to do this pilgrimage. He figured he should do it before he gets any older.(62) Having spent some time in the United States he spoke good English. He walked with us for awhile. Translating some of the signs that we had been curious about.
He took our photo next to the Henro Trail sign
When we reached the town we were on the lookout for a bakery. It wasn’t long till one appeared. Again it was hard to choose just one bakery goods..
We ate outside the bakery shop and when Don went back in to throw away the packaging. We were given two popsicles as ossetai.
The town is bigger than most of the small towns we have walked thru.
When we walk thru bigger towns it is such a contrast from the rural areas. We have enjoyed the big cities as well as the smaller ones. We saw this painting on one of the buildings.
Arriving to the town by early afternoon, we found our hotel and were able to check into our room. We had two things that we wanted to do this afternoon visit Ryukoin Temple B6, one of the Bekkaku temples and the Uwajima Castle. Both were in walking distance of our hotel. The castle is located high on a hill visible from most parts of the town.. Without our backpacks, it was a nice walk.
The castle was built over 400 years ago and is one of the few castles in Japan that is in its original form. We were impressed with the stone work around the castle.
And the precision of the corner stones.
For a small fee you could enter the castle and visit the various floors. One display had the uniforms of the soldiers.
Another interesting display were the drums.
After we left the castle we made our way over to The Bekkaku 6 Ryukoin temple. We were never clear on why certain temples are included in the 88 Pilgrimage Route and others are not. On the way to to the temple we passed a house with colorful whirly gigs.
And a colorful mancover
Walking up to the gate. Pretty common to have stairs going up to the temples.
Some of the memorials on the grounds were of Shinto origin.
The roofs of the buildings are distinct.
Time to head back to the hotel and enjoy the fresh squeezed orange they have for you to try.
And pick up some bath salts to soak in the bath tub tonight.
After a refreshing bath, we thought we would go check out one of the restaurants we saw near our hotel. We walked in and asked the man behind the desk if we could have dinner there tonight. We thought he said yes and when he motioned for us to follow him and showed us where to sit we thought all ws good. He even handed us some menus. That was about as far as we got. For the next 20 minutes or so we were basically ignored. There were people who can in after us that were served. We got the hint when the waitress took the orders from the table next to us and did so by turning her back to us. Not sure what the reason was, but we just left and headed to our favorite convenience store. This is when we would really like to know more of the language. This is the second time we had the feeling that we weren’t welcomed. But there have been so many great things that have happened to us that these two situations seem so minor. Beautiful walking today and the weather was perfect.
Accommodation Oriental Hotel
Miles walked 21