Tokishima: Sunny, 14

Getting Ready To Go...

Today was neither a touring day nor a walking day. It was a preparation day. We met with David Moreton for a long coffee meeting and he was super helpful! During my research for this pilgrimage there were a few gaps in my information and he was able to easily rectify the issues. Very nice:) We discussed pilgrimages in general, the community of pilgrims world wide that we have all experienced and discussed friends in common. We discussed numbers of pilgrims on the route, and while 150,000 are in this route each year, there are only 200-300 foreigners (yes, that's what we are known as here) and about 600-700 nationals that walk the route, say 1000 walkers each year. So we will have lots of space, but this is the busy time as it's the dry season until the end of May. And yes, he confirmed this has been a warm winter in Japan, a switch from last year, the opposite of our own winter switch. 

After coffee at Tully's Coffee David walked us over to the international centre above the train station and he introduced us to some of the people who work there and helped us locate a few more resources. We parted company, but I'm sure we will stay in touch and he invited me to meet with him again after I finish. Time permitting I will.

We decided to sight see a little and walked to the local gardens. This city of about 900,000 isn't really a tourist type place, but we found that the blossoms were a bit ahead of the northern areas and we found a wedding in the photo stage of the process as well. Boy, are they ever young looking! Maybe I'm just getting older? 

 

 

It's going to be quite something when all this colour shows!

 

We managed to safely negotiate away from the cliffs...

 

And headed back to our room to have a cheap lunch and sort ourselves out. David had given us the idea to return here by train after Stage 4 following two days in the mountains to stay in a decent place that night and get a bit refreshed. Apparently this is a fairly common practice. I also knew of a bottle neck at Temple 21 where there is only one place to stay. Long story short, we ended up returning to the International Centre where a helpful lady who spoke English made some phone calls for us. first to confirm that we could stay in T12 which David though was closed to overnight stays. We already had a reservation, but in light of that information, we reconfirmed. All good. The T21 situation isn't as good. The tour companies book all the beds there at the foot of the gondola and this is a very tough stretch without other places to stay, so we sorted out the bus schedule and will have to travel back to Tokishima to stay over night again and then bus back early the next morning to catch the gondola up to the summit and continue onwards. A 3 hour round trip. Thankfully we have this sorted or we'd have been hooped! Extra cost and time wasted, but we will have a bed that night. As I said, a known issue on the trail. Besides, this hotel is pretty sweet with heated toilet seats, an amazing shower and lots of space in the room! Lap of luxury! 

We then walked over to an international store to look longingly at the groceries. The candy shelf...we were looking for M&Ms for our mountain mix. Sadly no luck. 

 

We then checked out the beer for David, Rob, Ken and Neil. 

 

Then home to run the laundry through and pull our stuff into a suitable pile to load up after dinner tonight. We are presently enjoying an excellent beer called Yebisu Premium and some Pringles from the above store:) The laundry is done so I can now get out of this kimono type thing, the name escapes me, but the name starts with a 'y'....yukata? Not my cup of tea, but I guess I'm going to have to get used to it. Annemarie likes them though. They are usually in most places we will stay in and they are the après walking attire here...really, not kidding! Ok Bruce, stop laughing!! 

Tomorrow the main event begins. We've had a wonderful time getting to know this country and its beautiful people a little. We've met some special folks along the way and seen some amazing places. But now as they say, the peddle hits the medal, and we begin the journey that we've prepared so hard for and have been anticipating with growing excitement. If we complete the planned walks then great, but if not, as my writer friend Ken who is sitting in Regina once said to me, "If you go then you have a story. If you just stay home, then you don't".  I've not forgotten this lesson. As my friend Ela in Germany once told me as we trudged along together in the heat of Spain, "you just have to trust that it will all work out ok". Another lesson not forgotten. I carry these thoughts and others as we begin. Tomorrow is an easy day of 18 kms. The tough part is trying to call the gentleman who owns the guest house where we will stay tomorrow night to pick us up at T7.  He speaks not a word of English, but our friend Sonomi has given us the words in Japanese to pass to someone...anyone, to call on our behalf. You can't have too many friends. Thanks Sonomi!

Ok, time to put on some clean, dry clothes and go out to dinner. I'm finding this yukata thing a wee bit drafty:) And no, there won't be any pictures!