Kiyotakiji(35)Shoryuji(36)

March 12

We felt that we were given a gift last night as we experienced rain on the roof and not on our tent. We don’t mind rain on our tent, but packing up a wet tent always adds weight and our packs are heavy enough. We wake at 5 and leave before 7. The rain continues to fall and as cars pass us we are splashed by water. We make a wrong turn on one of the streets and instead of being upset, a smile comes to our face. Right in front of us is a bakery store which tempts us with too many choices.

We appreciate the technique of preciseness. Since we couldn’t decide on just one, we had to try several. Good thing we are walking today.

In front of one of the houses was this Japanese wind vane.

Going thru towns gives us an appreciation of the Japanese culture.

We had read that Temple 35 involved a lot of steps. This was accurate. We climbed the first set of stairs and found a place to leave our backpacks by the entrance gate.

The deities at the gate seemed ancient.

Climbing up the next set was made easier by not having the backpacks.

When we arrived at the first hall, several monks with men in suits were chanting loudly. We listened for awhile wondering the meaning of the chants. There were numerous moss covered stone tablets. At this time we would have loved to learn more about this temple. We have several books about the temples, but there isn’t enough details to satisfy our curiosity.

This temple like the gates had dragon sculptures on the corner of the eaves.

A red fire truck seemed out of place, but hearing all the stories of fires burning down the structures, we see the importance of this vehicle.

We hope that the use of this vehicle is minimal.

The last thing we do before leaving the temple is to get our book signed with the name of the temple as well as stamped.

It is exact and so fun to watch the page come alive with the ink pen.

Carrying my signed book. It is fascinating to look at all of the different characters of calligraphy for each temple.

We head down the mountain side and catch a view of Tosa Bay and the bridge we will be walking across to the next temple.

The bridge was built in 1973, before that one had to take a ferry.

We walk across the bridge.

Glad there is a good berm. We walk past our lodging for the night called Sanyo-so. It is known for its onsen, About a mile past Sanyo-so is the temple. It will close in a little over an hour so we walk quickly to get there before it closes.

It is tucked back into the forest to receive protection from the storms coming off of the ocean.

Fishermen come here to pray for a good catch.

A pagoda stands out.

This memorial had freshly knitted hats.

We backtrack back to our lodging for the night. At the desk we give a couple names of lodging possibilities for tomorrow and ask if they would call the numbers. They did, but came up with the same answer, No. It wasn’t for lack of trying. Looks like we will have more planning for tomorrow. A nice warm bath and we are ready to look at the maps. We found a business hotel that we will ask the desk clerks to try tomorrow.

Accommodation Sanyo-so

Miles hiked 15

No Temples/nice day for walking

March 13,

We spent last night looking at maps and routes. We found another hotel that we are going to ask the desk clerk to call for us this morning. Yesterday we crossed paths with Andreas. One of the options today includes taking a ferry. Andreas is going to walk. I think we are going to decide when we get to the ferry dock. We pack our packs and head down to the desk. We hand the desk clerk the name of the hotel and the number. He phones them and after talking for awhile, he calls for his manager who also talks for awhile. We are clueless about the conversation, but when it is over, they nod and say you have a reservation for tonight. That is a relief. We had found a campsite, but it would have been a very short day so this is much better. The day is crystal clear. we go back over the bridge that we crossed yesterday and head to the roads along the water. We admire all of the boats neatly lined along the shore.

If we decide to take the ferry we won’t have to worry about rough water.

When we got close to the ferry dock, it seemed like an easy decision to just keep walking. We would have to wait for the ferry to depart and then the ferry goes to several ports with waits at each spot. It would take longer to take the ferry than walk. We are enjoying the walking.

We are getting excited to see the cherry blossoms.

We pass a rice field that a farmer is getting ready for planting. We read about the process to grow rice and how labor intensive it is. We understand why it is important as a manner of respect to eat all of the rice when it is given to you.

preparing the rice field

We pass a lot of small rice plots that seem to be family ones that they maintain.

We also check out bee hives. Hives here have no structure for the bees to build their honeycomb like the US. They are opened boxes.

Some are closed so not sure of how the bees make their honeycomb.

This had bees being very active going thru the slit at the bottom

In a small town there is a store selling scallops and other shell animals for sale

And here are signs like the one below which we have no idea what they are saying. We realize that driving a car here would be very challenging.

It was a meandering day of walking. We paused often to check things out. We still arrived to the town where our lodging is located about 2 in the afternoon. We found a 7/11 with seating arrangements and got our favorite berry smoothie drink. As we were sitting there enjoying our drink a couple of young girls started a conversation. They had studied English in school and wanted to talk to us in English. It has been an enjoyable day and it was made even better this morning when we had accommodations confirmed for the night. As we were sitting there a Japanese man started talking to us as well and wanted to let us know about his pilgrimage on the El Camino in Spain. Before we started this trip one of our big concerns was accommodations. So far things have worked our and having a tent gives us a piece of mind. We have found some campgrounds that we should be able to stay at in the next couple of weeks. We head to our hotel and have a nice soak in the bathtub. With no temples to visit the walking seemed to go quickly. The temples for the next couple of days are spread out with some days not having any.

Accommadtion Bandaga Hotel (business hotel)

Mikes hiked 15

Bekkaku 5, Just walking

March 14

We had a good night of sleeping at our hotel and had time to spend looking ahead. Our nights destination is going to be a campsite that is somewhat out of our way. We are looking forward to camping tonight. We won’t have to be on a time schedule to get there any particular time. Bekkaku #5 is on our way so we decide to check it out. There are 20 Bekkaku temples which are not part of the 88 temples. Our friend, Andreas and Connie plan to check those out as well. We only plan to stop at several of them. We arrive at 8 and climb up the stairs to reach the temple.

The temple looks over the town and the bay.

The office where we can get our book signed as proof of visit is in a house next door to the temple. This is different than all the other temples where the office is part of the Temple grounds. We follow a sign pointing to the office and knock on the door. We hear a voice telling us to come in and then meet the women who will sign our book. She is very friendly and speaks some English. The room is decorated with many artifacts. She wishes us well as we head out to do another day of walking with no 88 Temples

Clark, the man we met the first day of our pilgrimage, sent us a message a couple days ago of a route that he took following the coastline. His comment was that we should go that way. We will be heading that way today and have decided that we will take his suggestion. As we look across the bay we can make the outline of the road that hugs the coast.

It is a narrow road, but fortunately there is very little traffic, with all the curves the vehicles need to go slowly and most of the time you can see the cars in the distances as they are coming.

We are impressed with the construction of this road.

There are tunnels to go thru

And open areas that are covered at the top and opened at the sides to protect the road from falling rocks.

The scenery of beauty never ends.

We are glad to have taken Clarks suggestion. Later we learned that a major landslide had occurred on the road and the road was closed,

When we finally exit the road we enter a small town.

Fishing appears to be an important source of employment.

We also take note of large Tsunami Evacuation Towers. We always need to be alert!

This one was impressive.

As we head into town we start looking for a store to buy some food. We are just walking the streets randomly checking out stores. We are approached by a man who says Are you from Alaska? He speaks some English and tells us that we met his daughter yesterday at the 7/11 store and she told her Dad about the two people she met from Alaska. That interaction made us smile! Small world!

The Dad of the girls we met yesterday

We found a Family Mart, had lunch and bought food for the night and morning. Before we get to the campground we need to head over a pass. We walk thru an area by a river that is noted for cherry trees. The buds are coming out, this section is going to be a color of pink soon.

These trees look very old, we can understand why they have historic value.

We pass under a bridge and try to figure out the challenges of building it.

The paved road stops and we head up to Nanako pass. It is gradual at first but then steepens at the end. We pass a rest area in the woods that camping is permitted. It is too early for us to stop so we walk on. At the top of the pass we find a vending machine and are ready for a cold drink. We look back at the bridge we walked under never realizing that we would be looking down at it. We had quite the climb.

Now it is time to be focused to just keep walking. This is going to be our longest day of walking yet. We are hoping that the campground on the map is a reality. As usual the more we look at the mileage, the slower we seem to be going. Eventually we do see a sign with a tent on it. We also pass a person who points down the road. I guess we are on tract. Then we see the sign and a bathroom. We can camp anywhere on the gravel by the river. There is no charge for camping here. We put up the tent and quickly heat up a cup of noodles meal. We are tired and sleep comes quickly.

Accommodation Senjecki Campground

Miles walked 23

Iwamotoji(37) more walking

March 15

We woke to frost on the tent and a definite chill in the air. We think that the temperature was probably in the high 20’s. We quickly packed up and put on our extra layers, including our gloves. Thoughts of eating will come later now we just want to get warm. We are looking forward to having the sun hit our bodies.

We pass these friendly statues where we turn.

It was mostly down hill to Temple 37 and we arrived there in a couple of hours. We had asked Takumi to make a reservation for us here, but there was no availability. When we were at the temple we discovered that their shower was broken and they weren’t accepting reservations. Connie arrived shortly after us, she had also tried to get a reservation here and was told it was closed. It looks like a fun place. When they are open, they have a barbecue meal for all the guests. There were fun signs in English scattered about.

We enjoy approaching the gate and bowing. It sets the tone for the Temple grounds.

Walking up to the gate.

It was easy to take a photo of the deities on each side of the gate,

One figure has their mouth open and one is closed,

There was a group of pilgrims here on a tour. It is always interesting to listen to them doing their sutras together. Some use books, while others chant from memorization.

Always interesting structures to check out.

After completing the rituals we do at the temples, it was time to go find Lawsons for breakfast.

We are in luck when the Lawson’s has a seating area and a place to plug in the phone and batteries. We take our time eating breakfast and try to come up with a strategy for lodging tonight. A woman sitting across from us starts up a conversation. Using our translator app and her understanding of English, we ask her if she would call this guest house to see if they would have room for us tonight. She agrees and soon is talking to the owner of the guest house. It seems like we might have lodging for the night and then she tells the owner we are Americans. All at once the conversation is ended and the woman looks at us and says sorry, but she won’t take Americans. This is the first time we have been refused because of being an American. We have heard though some of the guest houses are not as welcoming to foreigners . We thank her for trying. She looks at other options, but they are too far away for us to walk there. We thank her again for trying. She then goes and buy us some bread to take with us. You could tell she felt bad when she told us that we couldn’t stay at the guest house. When we were in Hiwasa, the owner said that it was legal to camp on the beach in Japan. We will be going along a beach, so that may be an option. Clark sent us a message that he camped on the beach one night. No worries, we will figure something out. We appreciated the help that she gave us. After eating a good breakfast and buying food for the night we headed down the road.

After hiking for about 30 minutes a car pulls up behind us and the lady that we had talked to at the store gets out. She went to find her husband so that they could drive in their car to look for us. She felt really bad about the guest house that didn’t want us to stay there, and if we wanted they could drive us to another guest house further down the road. We thanked them again and really appreciated the help they wanted to give us. We told them we would be fine and that we had camping gear if needed. We waved to them as they turned the car around.

We took a break at a rest hut and were joined by a Japanese Pilgrim. He didn’t speak English, but he had the greatest laugh. He walked with us for awhile and we used google translate to exchange some basic information. He was only visiting some of the temples and he was staying at the guest house that we had been refused.He said let me call and see if I can talk to the owner. We said sure. The result was the same. I think the answer surprised him, but we told him we had sleeping bags and a tent and we would find somewhere to camp. We thanked him for trying and waved goodby as he headed down the road.

When we arrived to the beach, it was beginning to get dark. We checked out some places we thought might work and there was a bathroom nearby.

The beach area had a park so we spent some time there enjoying the early evening.

There was even a little bridge that you could walk to a point of land. The trail that we wanted to take to the beach where we thought we could camp was blocked by a rope. The trail had been washed out. We checked our map again and saw where there was another rest area near by. We hiked way from the beach and saw the hut. There were no close houses, there was a bathroom and there were no signs saying no camping. We felt good about sleeping here for the night. it was now dark so we inflated our mattresses and unstuffed our sleeping bags. The sky was filled with stars. This was a great place to spend the night.

Accommodation :Camping at a rest area

Miles hiked 15

No temples, beautiful walking

March 16

We wake up feeling rested and thankful. We didn’t put up our tent last night so star gazing was excellent. The island of Shikoku has changed so much from the time that Kobo Daishi walked. here. Looking at the stars and sea, we see the same environment that Kobo Daishi saw when he slept out under the stars. We are thankful for our lodging last night!

The early dawn light woke us up and we packed up to continue down the road.

As we started walking we saw a view point and noticed the red glow of the rising sun.

If we hadn’t been sleeping outside, we probably would have missed this view.

Now we have a good idea about the story behind the Japanese Flag.

The Japanese flag

We walked by several parks, that had a variety of animal sculptures and admired the views of the ocean.

It wasn’t long before we saw the guest house that we had tried to stay at yesterday.. Our Japanese friend Shinshi, that we met yesterday saw us from the dining room window. He came out and waved and wanted to know if we had eaten. He wanted to invite us in. We had eaten some food so we waved said thank-you and kept walking. There was an option of going thru a tunnel or walking a little longer and staying on the coast. We chose the coastal route.

There wasn’t much traffic and the views were great.

We saw a sign for a roadside rest and remembered that the last one we had stopped at had great food. We should check this one out. We weren’t disappointed and also bought some fresh fruit to eat later today. There was a shaded seating area, so out came our books and app. We are liking the fact that we aren’t planning too far ahead as this allows for more flexibility in our schedules. We booked a hotel and checked out some campgrounds. Booking hotels on line is pretty easy, On the move again as we headed into the town where our hotel is located.

Then we saw it….

The Golden Arches. We figured that even thought we haven’t eaten at a McDonalds for a long time in the states, we should check it out. The interior looked familiar. Most of the food on the menu, we recognized The main difference was that once you ordered your food, you received a number on a stand, took it to a table and then the food was brought to you. The conclusion after eating was that the hamburgers tasted the same and we don’t need to visit McDonalds again.

We passed this cute rest area on the way to our hotel.

As we were walking on the street to our hotel, Don noticed a Barber shop. He wasn’t busy so we opened the door and walked in. No English spoken here but pointing to Don’s hair was sufficient. Don motioned that he just wanted a short hair cut and to use a number 2 blade. The haircut was great and even included a head massage. Don may be getting more haircuts here! Don is thinking that a number two blade may be different in Japan. He had a very short hair cut!

When we were walking out the door, the barber turned to me and handed me two rocks with a Buddha painted on them. For you was understood and then we bowed! We had a good day of just experiencing the area.

Our Buddha rock

Accommodation ..Danichi Hotel

Miles hiked 13

No temples, walking in the rain

March 17

We left the Danchi Hotel before 7 and headed to Lawson’s for breakfast and to buy food for snacks and lunch.

When we see the picture of the person sitting, we know we can eat inside

We never realized before coming to Japan how often we would rely on getting food at these convenience stores.

We have looked at different options for reaching Temple 38 which is the tip of Cape Ashizuri-misaki. Our latest plan is cut over to the west side walking thru a long tunnel and then return via the route on the east side of the cape. We will be doing some back tracking, but that makes the most sense. The weather forecast is for rain later today so we will see how far we get. We have planned to camp tonight so we have some flexibility in our schedule

As we leave the town, we pick up a small road that parallels the river.

It was overcast and one could feel that rain was in the future. As we walked thru a small village, the smell of fresh bread wafted out the door of a small bakery shop. We immediately knew that this was a required stop. Placing our packs outside the door, we filled a small tray with freshly baked rolls. Never mind that we had just had breakfast. The rolls melted in our mouths. We even went back in to buy some more for the road. As we were continuing our walk we saw 2 pilgrims walking toward us. They were taking their dog with them on the pilgrimage. They wanted to take a photo of us.

One thing that we have noticed that has been different on the long hikes that we have done in the USA is the lack of dogs here..This is the first people we have seen that have a dog with them.

One part of today’s hike is going thru a tunnel that is over a mile long.

It is a Sunday and there isn’t much traffic. At least our ears shouldn’t be ringing too bad by the time we get to the other side. There is a nice big sidewalk along the tunnel highway. We see Shinshi and another pilgrim ahead of us. We both stop at a rest area. They have hotel reservations so they need to keep moving. The one man decides that he is going to catch a bus to beat the rain. Shinshi walks with us for awhile until we decide to take a path through the woods. I am not sure why we went that way. We had a choice of taking the road or going thru the woods. It was as if someone was guiding us, then we saw the best rest area of the day. It was located near a business that was closed today. It had a cement floor and overhanging eaves, Even in the downpour the inside was dry. We could collect water from the roof for dinner and just sleep here. We listened to the rain on the roof and the wind blow. We were cozy and dry!

Accommodation Rest Hut

Miles Hiked 16

Konogofukuji (38) coastal walking

March 18

We woke up in a bit of disbelief that we found this rest hut just when we needed it last night. We slept warm and dry and were packed up leaving when the first car came in arriving at the business. The fact that it was raining provided us with water for our cooking needs. It wasn’t too long of a hike when we passed the campground that we were going to stay at last night. It would have worked, but it was in a sandy area and camping on sand in the rain isn’t a lot of fun. The walk thru the woods and along the beach was a good start to the morning.

Soon we were back in a town where fishing boats lined the shore. Compared to yesterday, the sun was shining on our shoulders, We were excited that we were going to visit the cape on a sunny day. There was even a convenience store that we passed that we could pick up some snacks for the day. We love it when life aligns in a way to make your smile.

The nets off the back added a lot of color.

It wasn’t long for us to walk thru the town and find a path that would take us up and over a small pass to more scenic views. First though we passed some cormorants nesting in a tree. They seemed to be enjoying the sun as well.

We always enjoy the paths when we go from the streets into a wooded area.

Soon we were hiking up near the top and checking out the views

As we dropped down to a road and headed toward another small town, we heard the familiar sound of the mobile grocery store. Same as before, people were gathered around the small truck to buy food items. We joined the customers and were especially excited about the grapes and strawberries.They would be a great addition to our lunch today. We found a rest area beneath a historical banyan tree and enjoyed our treats.

The Banyan Tree

Next to it was the structure of the vine branches of a banyan tree that had killed the host tree.

As we continued walking we noticed how mail is delivered on small streets in the towns.

It seemed an efficient way to deliver mail.

And then shortly after lunch we arrived to the town where Kongofukuji (38) is located. According to information that we have read this is one of the most remote and impressive temples of the 88 Temples. It takes over three days for most walkers to reach this temple from temple 37. Just before we were getting ready to visit the Temple we were stopped by a woman. She asked, “Are you Don and Donna?. “ When we said , “Yes” She said my name is Renae and I met Takumi who told me about you. She is also carrying a heavy backpack so we immediately have something in common. It was fun talking to her.

Renae

She has just arrived as well and we head off to visit the temple. This temple is known as everlasting happiness.

We enter the gate on the left side, refreshing the rituals of what we need to do when visiting a temple. We are glad to be back adding temples to our daily life.

The deities protect the gate

There are so many things to see at this temple that we are glad we have most of the day to visit it.

There are beautiful rock formations through out the grounds as well as 108 cast Buddhas

It seems like everywhere we look we see more statues of Buddhas.

The basin for purifying your hands and mouth is also different.

Some temple ground photos.

Flowers add to some of the statues

And we discover more Buddhas

In one area of the temple grounds was huge rocks and in front of them an area of smaller rocks. There was a monk just throwing the rocks randomly in this area. He was throwing them when we arrived and throwing them when we left. We had no idea what was his task.

He is in the middle of the smaller rocks.

There were also stories of turtles here.

Several stone turtles were placed through out the grounds.

There was a statue of John Manjiro. We found his story below quite interesting.

After several hours of visiting here, we decided to go and check out some more of the sites on the cape. There are nice pathways and signs directing where to go. Our first stop was the observatory.

Here you had a good view of the ocean below

Fishing boats were headed out beyond the breakers.

While at the observatory, we meet our friend Connie, It is always fun to catch up and learn about her experiences.

Connie, Don and I

There were other tourists here just checking out the views. One approached Connie and asked her if the people in the white vests and sedge hats were a cult. They had heard about the cape as being a beautiful place to visit, but they had no idea about the 88Temple pilgrimage route. They were from the states and were happy to learn about the people in the white vests and about the temple located here. We had a couple more places to visit before retiring to our hotel for the night. The trails connecting the sites were well done.

Often, they would lead out to a view of the ocean.

We particularly like the arch view.

There was a rock here that had the shape of a turtle. It also had a story of how it had arrived to the cape.

Our last spot that we wanted to visit was the hot pool to soak your feet. We took a trail that we thought would take us there.

Nothing looked like a place to soak your feet. We even pulled out google maps which said we were in the area. It had a photo which gave us a huge clue. It wasn't outside, it was inside a building and we were standing right next to it. We had some time before it closed so we went to check it out. There was Connie encouraging us to soak our feet. What a great suggestion.

There were three levels of tubs you could soak your feet. After three days of hiking this felt great on our feet. We checked with Connie to see if she might want to go out to eat. We headed to a restaurant that was open when we first arrived, but found out that all stores closed at 5. We were glad we had some noodles back in our room.

This has been quite the day, having beautiful weather, visiting a unique temple and seeing old and new friends. Tonight we are staying in a Japanese business hotel. There are tatami mats on the floor and futons in the closet. In the middle of the room is a table with pillows that you can sit on while drinking your tea. The best item though was a foot and leg massage chair.

Accommodation Hotel Ashizuran

Miles hiked 15

No Temples, long walk

March 19

It is pretty easy to pack up when you are mostly packed before you go to bed. We left the hotel at 6:00 and headed past the temple. I think we were the only ones up at this hour. It was so quiet. We have a potentally long hike today so we need to keep on the move. It will be a day without temples. We take a walk thru the forest and then are surprised when we see that there is someone up other than us. A man is taking a photo of a beautiful blooming flower. He doesn’t speak English so he just points to the flower.

When we google the flower it comes up with the name Japanese Jack in the Pulpit. One source says that it is only found on the Island of Shikoku.

We notice quite a few of them and are in awe of their beauty. We walk thru the forests for a ways today. Always glad to see theses signs.

Some of the walk today takes us along the beach. There is a sign warning of only hiking the beaches at low tide. We are glad that we walked the beach when the tide was low

We walked by the beach campground and watched waves roll in. This is known as the surfers beach, but the waves weren’t big enough to surf today.

Even though we had walked some of the trail day before yesterday, one always sees new sights when going in the other direction. We meet more pilgrims today due to the fact we are going against the main way of hiking. When we are hiking the usual way, it is common not to see many pilgrims. Today we have met several Japanese pilgrims who we mainly say “Konichiwa” a greeting of hello. One American who walks towards us asks “Are you Don and Donna? We say yes and then he says I heard about you and was hoping that our paths would cross. This is his second time doing the route and he continues to learn new things. We totally understand why there are many people who come back her and do the route again. We exchange emails. He has some questions about how we are backpacking this route. We tell him that we are finding enough places to legally camp that we feel carrying our camping gear is worth it. We meet Andreas from Germany again. It is always fun to see a familiar face. He is all smiles as his journey is going well. We tell him things not to miss at Temple 38. Not far behind him is Benjamin from France. He speaks English well and tells us that this is his second time around. The first time he walked, but this time he often takes buses. We walk by more fishing villages and watch fisherman as they are taking their fish to a cannery.

So many nets.

Lots of activity of this boat.

We stopped at Lawsons to pick up food for tonight and breakfast tomorrow. On the outside of the store is a staff that we recognize . It belongs to Amy, we haven’t seen her for while and she has plenty of stories to tell us. She has been using the train some. She has a schedule to meet and wants to visit all the temples. There is no right way to do this hike and the acronym HYOH applies. (Hike your Own Hike)This is a long stretch coming up with no stores. We walk by our rest hut that kept us dry and warm the night before last.

It is misty, but too early to stop, we have some miles to make today.

A perfect place to call home.

For the remainder of the day we are walking on rural roads. with very little traffic. We are going thru a mountainous area with mostly abandoned houses. There is logging going on in the area. In the distance we can see some clear-cut areas.

We also see what looks like the planting of new trees that have their trunk protected with a white material.We never got close enough to figure out what it was.

Below us is a river that we follow for most of the way up.

We continue to climb up.

We are going to pass a rest hut and plan to check it out for spending the night. When we arrive to it, it won’t work for sleeping so we continue further on to the campground that is marked on the map. Our feet are not happy when we finally see the sign for camping. Like the last time we camped there is no one here, but there is a bathrooms and running water. We check out a place to set up our tent and check out the bathroom. There is a dressing room that is empty. It is beginning to rain so we take shelter inside to see what the weather is going to do. The wind picks up and the rain falls harder. We look at each other and decide that maybe we should just take advantage of this room and sleep inside. We have good cell service and make a plan for the next couple of days. This is one of the longer days that we have hiked sleep is going to feel good.

Accommodation Mihara Campsite

Miles hiked 24