March 23
Somehow we had reserved a room with a single bed. It was really too small for both of us so I opted to sleep on the floor and slept just fine. The hotel had breakfast options that we had ordered last night. It was a breakfast sandwich of eggs and ham on bread that we could eat in the lobby. It worked for us as we prepared for the day. We want to visit three temples plus weather permitting go over a pass. If we go over the pass it will add about 2 more hours to our day. We check out some ducks swimming in a little creek beside us.
It seems like everywhere we travel, we see our friend the Mallards swimming in the water,
Temple 41 and 42 are relatively close together so we should be able to visit them this morning..The first temple has a red Tori gate at the top of the stairs.
It seems that some of these temples are shared with the Shinto religion. It is always interesting to look at the different statues located around the temples.
A lot of the temples are located above the towns.
The blue writings on the pillars in front of this hall stood out.
Praying for Peace is always written on our name slips and placed in the silver containers in front of the hall.
Lots of origami cranes for thinking about Peace.
We leave this temple and head down thru town to the next temple.
Houses below the Temple
Walking to the town we pass a green house that has numerous fruit trees that can be put under the cover. The branches of the trees are grown horizontal along bars. We would like to learn more about this technique.
The next temple was located less than a mile away. It is for the health of your animals, especially cows. Here we meet Jean-Pierre and Anne from France. They did half of the pilgrimage last year and plan to finish it this year. They are staying at our hotel tonight and told us that the hotel has a good buffet in the dining room for breakfast and dinner. Good to know!
This temple has the only bell tower that has a roof made out of reeds.
Lots more statues.
Most of the buildings in this temple ground were close together surrounded by trees.
This was one of our favorite statues. The fun of fishing.
The weather was now raining and as we headed up the mountains to go over a pass we would have to decide if we wanted to go thru the tunnel or take a longer route that would take us to the top of a mountain and then down.
Today on our way up to the pass we get to see and use the lone vending machine that is just along a highway.
There are a lot of vending machines in Japan. Each one seems to have a variety of selections. One can usually depend on seeing coffee, tea, and water. The other selections are surprise selections of different juices and sodas. Each vending machine has a container beside it to put in the can or bottle that you purchased. No other trash, please.
It was a paved narrow road that led us to the tunnel where we would have to decide which way to go. When we arrived to the tunnel it was pouring rain and gusty. We ducked into the tunnel and put on another layer. It seemed like the weather might clear some and if we were walking in the woods, we would get some protection from the wind. The hike to the mountain was our decision. We hope it was the right one. There are some scattered signs indicating this is the path, but at times we weren’t sure we were on the correct one.. There were numerous logging roads to make it confusing, but we pulled out the Henro App and felt confident that we were going in the right direction. As we got closer to the top, the rain stopped and the view opened up. There was a rest hut here as well as benches to sit on.
The rest hut. There were signs indicating that the trail down was used for a race.and we figured that it would be well marked. Here is a view from the top.
We were glad we took this route and the rain even stopped by the time we got to the top.
This is a screen shot of the map we were using. One can see all of the roads that are in the area.
As we headed down the trail we came out to a road, and thought it made sense to keep doing down hill, that was a mistake as eventually we realized we were not going in the right direction. Reversing our direction we headed back up the hill till we came to the intersection of the trail and went the opposite direction. Always hard to go back up hill and regain the elevation that you lost. We felt better about our new direction and hoped that we would get to the last temple before it closes. Then we saw a sign that pointed to an observatory. That usually means it was a good view, plus after the observatory the road was paved which meant faster walking. We figured it was with worth taking a look and once there we weren’t disappointed.
It was another good view. Then come the road walking which seemed to go on and on. The road did a lot of switch backing as we headed down. One could see where we wanted to go, but we were adding distance when we went back and forth down the mountain. Eventually we did make it down and headed towards the last temple of the day.
Temples that haven’t burned down seem so much older than the ones that have been rebuilt. This one just felt old. The large sandals here gave us pause when we think of all the pilgrims that walked this trail many years ago.
It is difficult to even imagine walking this trail in straw sandals. Our shoes have thick soles plus a padded insole. We are each carrying an extra pair and in a 100 miles or so we will use the second pair. Below are scenes from this temple. the blossoms are continuing to come out.
With the rain pouring we start looking for our hotel. We find it, but not the entrance. We walk completely around the hotel before seeing the door. The clerk uses a translator to communicate with us. They are amazing to imagine how they work. At this hotel they didn’t have any double room, so Don and I have single rooms next to each other. After settling in and taking baths, we head down to the dining room and like the French couple told us, have a great buffet feast. We do our laundry, which is nice because our clothes got pretty wet today so now we will have clean dry clothes. Heading back to our room we say goodnight at our respective doors. Tomorrow we are dedicating the morning to filing an extension for our taxes, It will be one of the first mornings since we started we aren’t packing up to leave by 6.
Accommodation Uwa Hotel
Miles Hiked 22