Stage 25: Uwajima - Unimachi, T41-43, 27 kms, Cloud with a bit of sun, 23

Three Temples and A Walk

Sunrise this morning.

Back into the harness today. It was a nice break while it lasted, but with all the wine, chocolate and extra meals I was beginning to put on weight. So definitely was time to get back on the trail!

I left late at around 8 because I knew I couldn't get into my place tonight until 3pm, and I had to ask for that early access. It was granted, but reluctantly. The walk was pretty much nondescript for the grind out of town. Up hill all the way to this plateau where T41 & T42 were located.

 

T41, Ryūkōji is a temple where people originally prayed for a good rice harvest, but now pray for business prosperity. I don't remember reading about that in economics? It was a nice temple, as temples go, but didn't really hold my interest too long.

 

The lady who provided my stamp this morning was very lonely and kept me there having a nice chat for some time. A bit of a treat.

 

 It was a bit confusing coming out of the temple and orienting to T42, so I asked a nice lady and she ran away from me yelling. Something I said? She came back with her husband who had a bit of English, enough to confirm my assessment and as I walked on, the nice lady came back with a bag bulging with osettai and her with a lovely smile! All very nice, a huge orange, you know the type that the skin peals off in one piece and the taste is to die for as the juice runs down your chin! She also gave me two nice pieces of cake...yum! 

 

On my way to T42 I bumped into Neil's and his wife from North Holland who we met for only a couple of minutes at T21. They had missed T41 and were back tracking. It happens:)  He was in a hurry, she wanted to chat and she remembered you Annemarie. I headed onwards and saw them looking very tired at the end of the day a couple of hours after I arrived.

 

I passed the first of two Henro I met today walking the route in the opposite direction. Wasn't a fan of this fellows rigg, but each to their own. Cool looking though. I'm in a t-shirt and he is bundled. I'm sweating. What must it be like for him I wonder as I continue on. 

T 42 was really nice, and it would have had a real zen sort of feel to it if the students running around weren't running around. They were there to learn and of course were also blowing off some steam, so it was all good. 

 

 

T42 Butsumokuji, you'd never believe how it was established, so I won't tell you! People used to come here to pray for prosperity at home, but now they apparently come here in memory of lost pets. Very transitional. An unusual collection of pets!

 

As I was entering I bumped into my acquaintance Christine who I'd met a few time and who I'd had a nice dinner with at a minshuku about 130 kms back Damon the trail. She'd taken a rest day and then caught up with me when I took mine. Nice to see her again.  From here I began to climb off the plateau up to the Hanaga-tōge Pass, about 500 metres above where I'd started my day. 

 

From there I dropped down about 300 metres through a beautiful cedar forest. It was really nice walking!

 

I met the second Henro climbing up as I descended. We bowed and I felt badly for him, and he likely wished he was me, going down hill!

Annemarie, the first lylocks I've seen here!  I'll likely miss them here and then have to prune them when I get home anyway. 

At a rest hut I received my second offering of osettai. A tin of cold ice tea, some hard candies, two packages of cookies and a tin of coffee, which I politely returned. I met Christine there and I warned her about the upcoming Golden Week. She thought it was a week later. I showed her my plan and answered a few questions about a complex section that we will traverse in a few days time, and then we walked the rest of the day together. While she has pretty good Japanese, like myself she was happy to be able to speak English for a while. So that's what we did and before we knew it we'd arrived at Unimachi where we dropped our packs at the hotel and went and had a late lunch. On our way to the hotel we received another osettai from a fruit vendor, two beautifully sweet oranges! The second one I'm saving for breakfast!

 

Annemarie, lunch was in one of those family type places where we had our last breakfast in Japan together...Joyfull, spealt just like that! We returned to our hotel and put our gear into our rooms and then walked up to T43 Meisekiji. I liked this temple, it was quiet with a nice feel. We saw the Dutch couple there and I said to Christine that they probably wondered where my wife was. Hmmmm?   T43 is a 6th Century site referred to as 'Daybreak and Stone'. 

 

 

Getting us directions.

 

We returned to our hotel and completed the usual domestic stuff then went out to find dinner in a quiet fish restaurant where we had a cooked fish for once and that was a treat. It seems that we are getting along well and that's a good thing as it looks like we will be connecting from time to time over the coming weeks. It will make the evening meals a bit more enjoyable being able to communicate with someone else, as has been the case on my previous solo walks. Fortunately we both enjoying walking solo, but to have someone to talk to at the end of the day is nice.

Tomorrow a longer day and it looks like I'll continue to climb before a rather pronounced drop back down to sea level. All that hard effort gone to waste! It's another 70.4 kms to the next temple, and with rain in the forecast tomorrow I'll be putting my white shirt in the pack. A cooler 18 tomorrow, but I'm not complaining. Still warmer than home. If you're looking at the map at the top of the blog postings I'm heading up the base of the island on the left side. You can see the 3 temples from today fairly close together followed by a lengthy space.

Stacked turtles! Wonder if I could carry on one of these for my garden at home? How cool would that be!?