April 19
It was nice to wake to clear skies with the haze of yesterday gone. We got a note from Takumi saying the he was bringing us some stickers and that he would be in the lobby. As we headed down to the lobby, we got another message saying that he had just left the stickers at the desk and was leaving. When we got to the lobby, he was gone, the clerk handed us an envelope with the stickers and a small food carton. In side of the carton was takoyaki. This was the dish that he brought as a surprise a couple days after we met him early in our walk. Takumi has succeeded in making many memories for us.
We went back to the room and finished packing our backpacks. We headed over to the bus station to buy tickets to get to the ferry, but was told that we could purchase them on the bus and that the bus was leaving in five minutes. Shortly after loading the bus departed and soon we had arrived at the ferry terminal. The ferry was there and it was almost twice as big as the one we had taken at the start of our trip, There were several busloads of Henroes on the ferry and the excitement from them was contagious. You could tell that they had a memorable experience. The seas were calm and the boat ride non eventful. Departing from the ferry, we thought of walking to our hotel, but when a bus pulled up and was going to the train station near our hotel we opted for the ride. We are staying in Wakayama for two nights. Tomorrow we are taking the journey to Koyasn and leaving our staff where we picked it up. Don bought a new cover for it and explained how he had gotten it and perhaps someone would want to carry it around the route for a third time.
The yellow stickers were put on by the original Henroes and glow in the dark.
Last time we were here we had eaten at a restaurant that served food that was dipped in a batter then fried. We knew that is where we wanted to eat again, We tried several different foods and all were good.
For my last piece, I tried ice cream
Accommodation: Comfort Hotel
Using: a bus, ferry and bus