{Shikoku Hachijūhachikasho Meguri}

--Thoughts during Week One--

--Monday, 3/27--
Was up early because i had gone to bed so early last night and spent the early part of the morning getting a few travelers checks cashed. I had some left over from last year's trip and decided to cash them rather than leave them unused for a second year.

Banks open in Japan at 9:00, so i arrived just as the shutters were rolling up. On the way there i passed an American-looking guy in front of another shop that was just opening and greeted him. Didn't say anything other than hello but i figured he was running the business and wondered how long he had been there. At the bank, i was surprised when they told me that the Foreign Exchange section didn't open until 10:00, so i had to find somewhere to kill an entire hour. I figured that shouldn't be hard in Ōsaka and went back out in search of a coffee shop.

After walking about a block, and while standing waiting for a stop light to change, the guy i had greeted earlier came up and said hello. As it turns out, he is not the owner of that shop and is also waiting for the Foreign Exchange section of the same bank to open. I told him i was looking for a coffee shop to kill the hour and since he was as well, he offered to show me the way to the local Starbucks. Once we got there though, he said he wasn't getting anything because he didn't have any money. I decided it didn't matter if i was getting scammed or not, i bought him a cup of coffee just to hear his story. I don't talk to many foreigners in Japan — where i usually go, there aren't any.

This guy was about the same height as i am, but weighed over 250 pounds, i would guess. He was just heavy enough to waddle instead of walk. He had 'LOVE' tatooed on his knuckles, and had tatoos on his entire arms. He looked to be a cross between a Hell's Angles member and a Yakuza. I had no idea what to expect, but his story had to be worth a cup of coffee.

He turned out to be fairly well spoken, claims to have been a Special Ed teacher in the US, and is married to a Japanese woman. After they had a son, the wife wanted to raise him in Japan so they had agreed to move back to Japan. He came to Ōsaka to look for work and she went home to her parents until he had the job. He was looking for work as an English teacher, but taking construction jobs until something came up.

I was surprised that he thought someone would hire him as an English teacher with all his tatoos, but he said that wasn't really an issue. He always wore long sleeve shirts, so all anyone saw was the tatoos on his knuckles. In addition, he claims that the stigma against tatoos in Japan has lessened and that most younger people now-a-days don't think that much of them. In fact, he claims that they are looked at as being kind of cool. I certainly couldn't argue with him, but find it hard to believe. Certainly that could be true for the cute little tatoo on your ankle or your butt that lots of younger people get lately, but arms full and across the hands? I have my doubts.

In any case, it was interesting to hear about his life and plans in Japan. After an hour we headed back to the bank and got there just as the Foreign Exchange section was opening. Was in and out in about 15 minutes, and then headed straight to the train station.

Got on a Nankai Kōya Line train to Mt. Kōya about 10:30 am. It was an nice ride on the express train but as expected, i got to Haryoin, where i'm spending the night, in the early afternoon and too early to check in.

Mt. Kōya is an amazingly restful and serene place. If i ever needed a place to go to mentally and physically recouperate and revitalize, this is the place i would come. Each time i am here, as soon as i get off the cable car at Kōya Station at the top of the mountain, i feel completely different. Like other years, the priest at Haryoin let me leave my pack there while i went to town, so i walked to the Okunoin without it. It was chilly, but it was a clear and beautiful day. After greeting Daishi-sama at his Mausoleum, i walked back into town, found some coffee, and relaxed for a little while before getting back to Haryoin at 4:00 to take a bath and have dinner.

--Tuesday, 3/28--
Morning services were different this year. They were still a half hour long, but the head priest did them alone and there was no goma (fire) ceremony. He simply sat in the very back corner were we couldn't see him and chanted while clanging on a few different bells and cymbals. Nothing like the services of past years.

When he came out to give us our short historical talk, it was much shorter this year than usual and he looks like he has aged a decade in the one year since i had last seen him. He did little more than tell us when the mountain was founded and when the main temple was built. He didn't sit down and didn't seem interested in us personally, both of which he has always done in past years. To top it off, he hadn't turned on the heater or put out zabuton for us to sit on. He was either completely unprepared or completely unconcerned. I don't know which. I remember that he had an anurism somewhere around 1998, and wonder if this is what has caused him to age so much?

It was a long train ride from Mt. Kōya down to Wakayama Port. I took the cable car back down the mountain to Gokurakubashi Station, changed to the Nankai Kōya Line to go to Hashimoto, changed again to the JR Line to go from there to Wakayama City, and then changed back to the Nankai Line to get to Wakayama Port. At many of the stops we sat and waited 5-10 minutes, at several we waited 30-45 minutes and didn't get to the ferry until about 3 minutes before it left. Caught the 11:25 ferry, watched a little TV, took a nap like many of the other customers, and arrived at Tokushima Port at 1:20.

Had and interview with an Asahi Shinbun reporter in David Moreton's office at Bunri University for about 2 hours. I was expecting a short interview with a few questions about why i was walking the pilgrimage and where i was from. What i got, however, was a two hour question and answer period about every aspect of my life from high school, through the military, university, the Peace Corps in Africa, my time in Tōkyō, work and graduate school, and the pilgrimage. He probably now knows more about me than almost anyone in the world. After the interview, he took a few hundred pictures of me sitting in my chair. It will be very interesting to see what he finally writes. I don't have any idea how much of that he intends to use or in what kind of article.

After the interview i accompanied David to his house to pick up his wife and son. We then went out and had dinner at a great tonkatsu restaurant. Tonkatsu is the one Japanese food that i have yet to find in the US that i like. Since i can't eat it here, it is one of my first meals in Japan each year. After dinner, it was back to the hotel to relax for an hour or so.

Tom Ward arrived from Tōkyō at about 9 pm and when he got in the two of us went out for tea and dessert. After chatting with each other and with the American that owned the restaurant it was back to the hotel and a good nights sleep.

--Wednesday, 3/29--
Tom, David and i left early in the morning by train to get from Tokushima City to Sabase, where i had stopped last year. From the train station we went to Bangai Temple 4, Saba Daishi, so that i could start where i left off in '05.

While there we took the time to revisit the long underground cement tunnel where the have a copy of the honzon from each of the 88 main temples and each of the 20 bangi temples. Then at the very bottom of the tunnel (it angles downward along its entire length) there is a large circular room that is a mini-temple in itself. Vey much worth a visit if you are going by.

With that, we were off and headed south. It was sunny, but incredibly windy, as if a storm was headed in. We walked down the side of Highway 55 along the coast. Shimura-san, the Asahi Newspaper reporter from the previous day, came out and met us on the road about 1 pm, or so. He wanted to walk with us for a few hours and get some pictures of us. We were lucky that late in the afternoon a couple of grandmotherly types selling oranges on the side of the road stopped us and gave us a bag each as settai. I think Shimura-san had really wanted to get pictures of us receiving settai.

After getting to our minshuku about 4:00, Shimura-san told me that he wanted a few last pictures, and had me march up the road a little more while he ran in front to get the pictures he wanted. He then had me pose in various stances for even more pictures. After that he left for home and we headed in for a bath and dinner.

--Thursday, 3/30--
Had a long day of walking, continuing our trek straight down Highway 55. A storm is coming in, or so they say, so the winds were ferocious — but it was warm and that made it very tolerable. There are no side roads that we could walk on today, so the entire day was on the side of the road or on a sidewalk along the highway.

Stopped for lunch at a road-side park and met a man and 2 women, all in their sixties. We ended up spending about an hour there talking and relaxing. For lunch we had some onigiri that the owner of last night's minshuku had given to us as settai, plus a little food the people we met shared with us. It was terribly windy, but there wasn't a cloud in the sky so it was both pleasant and incredibly beautiful.

Other than the Inland Sea and the Pacific Ocean (as you get further south) there wasn't a lot to see. On this part of the trail, as you walk along the road, the water is immediatley to your left and the mountains are immediately to your right. The mountains are as beautiful as ever, but the cherry blossoms are already past their peak and the trees are only half full of blossoms. To top it off, the winds are knocking the remaining blossoms off the trees at a faster rate than usual.

Didn't get to the Youth Hostel at Temple 24 (Hotsumisekiji) until about 5 pm. We are all slowing down as we have all developed blisters. To call this a youth hostel, is a far stretch as far as i can see. It certainly isn't like any of the youth hostels i remember from my younger days and travel in Europe. It isn't like any of the other youth hostels that i stayed at in other places in Japan. I'd call the youth hostel a 4-star hotel. There are three beds to a room in the western-style rooms (which we were assigned) and they are as nice as any good hotel. Some of the other guests stayed in tatami rooms as could be seen when they left the doors open. The floors with rooms are all carpeted, as are the non-tatami rooms, and in our room there was a desk, TV, toilet, sink, and heat that we could control. It was quite luxurious and only cost ¥5,900 for the night and 2 meals.

The food was good, but nothing better than in other minshuku/ryokan that i stay in. It appeared that almost every one else there was part of a bus tour and they were having a great time. It was a noisy night in the dining room.One guy about 70 years old came over and gave us a beer in exchange for his practicing his English for about a half hour. Given that he only knew a few dozen words, he used each of them quite often. As seems to happen often in these situations, we would speak to him in Japanese, or first English and then immediately follow that with the Japanese translation, and he would answer in English. But, hey, for a free beer, we were willing to let him enjoy himself.

--Friday, 3/31--
Went to morning services on the fourth floor of the youth hostel, where we stayed the night. The view was spendid. Amazing might be a better word. The room has two walls of floor to ceiling glass and from either direction you were looking out over the ocean and the fishing boats heading out for the day. Given a perfectly clear and sunny day, you could see forever.

The head priest of the temple came up at 6:30 to give the morning service and i was quite impressed. He is a young 33 years old and very, very personable. After about 20 minutes of chanting, which we were suposed to join, he turned around and gave a short talk to all of the participants. After talking about the weather and a few pleasantries, he talked about the various things that he had chanted, including the heart sutra. It seemed to be a completely spontaneous and off-the-cuff talk and the other guests seemed completely involved.

After breakfast, the head priest gave us a tour of the inside of the Hondō, showing us all of the implements used during various ceremonies and the statues, carvings, and paintings. Besides the honzon of Kokūzō Bosatsu, there were two statues of Fudō Myōō on either side. He played on a very large drum and some cymbals in the frontto show us how they were used in the services he held. He showed us a large mokygyo, a shell shaped wooden instrument used by many to keep their pace while chanting, but said that he had inherited it with the temple and never used it.

After getting my Nōkyō book stamped, Tom, David and i walked for abou an hour towards Temple 25, Shinshōji. David then got on a bus and headed back to Tokushima City and Tom and i continued down the road. Sometime in late afternoon, as Tom and i were walking along a quiet side road, an elderly grandmother called us over to the side of the road and told us that she wanted to give us a bag of yakiimo (a type of sweet potato) as settai. Shortly after this, Tom stopped to look into getting a haircut and a bus towards Kochi City Airport, which then left me on my own.

From there it was a long slow walk because of blisters on my right foot, and i didn't get to my ryokan until 5:15. I headed immediatly to the bath and then from there they called me to dinner. Shortly after i was sound asleet.

--Saturday, 4/1--
Tough day today. Still no blisters on my left foot, but the right foot is killing me.

The walk from last nights lodging to the bottom of the hill where you climb up to Temple 27 is only a few km (a little over a mile) and was easy going. Once i got to the bottom of the hill, though, it took a little over an hour to get up to the temple. The top third of the climb up is on mounain trails, but the bottom two-thirds is on the side of the road. I don't think anything has changed at Temple 27, it seems just as i remembered it. After you climb up to the temple compound, don't think you have arrived — from there it is another hundered or more stair steps up to the Hōdo and Daishidō.

After visiting the temple it was back down the mountain. I worked my way for about a half hour through a small village of green houses until i got back to Highway 55. From there it was straight down the road to where i would spend the night. Got to the town pretty early, but couldn't check in so i tried to find a coffee shop to kill some time. Unfortunately, i'm not at all sure that there are any in this town. I walked for a half hour around the city center before sticking my head in a small restaurant (of sorts) and asking them. They owner told me they didn't have any, but walked me to a street about a block away and told me there was a coffee shop a hundered meters or so down that street. She was right, but they were closed so i just found the hotel and tried to check in.

Unfortunately, no one answered when i called out from the entrance of the minshuku, so i just took off my pack and sat on the step just inside the door. About fifteen minutes later, a man came around the corner and told me that this wasn't the entrance and that i needed to go back out and around the corner. Apparently i was sitting in the entrance to his house. In my favor, though, i have to point out that there was a sign with the minshuku name right above the door.

Just got back to my room after another delicious dinner only to see that it has started raining. The weather report says that it will rain all night and all day tomorrow until about 3.

--Sunday, 4/2--
Was raining when i left the ryokan this morning about 7:15. Somewhere around 8:00 i tried to call a couple of minshuku near Temple 28 where i had hoped to spend the night. The first said they were already full and the second had telephone trouble so no calls were going through. That gave me the option of walking about 4 km (2.5 mi) further than i wanted, and stay in a business hotel at that, or to stop about 4 km short of Temple 28. Because my right foot is giving me a LOT of trouble, i opted to stop short and only walk about 23 km (14 mi) for the day. When i called the minshuku closest to Temple 28, but short of it, the owner tried to talk me out of it. She said i would get there by early afternoon and that check-in wasn't usually until 4:00. Only when i promised to not show up until then did she agree to let me stay the night.

Rained all morning until about noon, usually not a severe downpour, but certainly a heavy rain. Since i had all day to walk only 23 km (14 mi), and i usually figure i cover about 4 km per hour, that meant i had a lot of time to kill. Because i'm walking along the coast either on Highway 55 or the paved cycling trail between the coast and the highway, there are rest areas with views out over the ocean. Around 9:00 i stopped at one of the rest areas and relaxed for about 30 minutes. The waves didn't look all that ominous, but they were sure pounding into the surf enough to be pretty loud. I sort of expected to see some surfers out in the high surf since today is Sunday, but i didn't see any.

After starting to walk again, a woman 6 years older than me caught up with me and we walked together and chatted for about an hour. This was the same woman we had met back on Wednesday at a rest area while drinking tea. We walked together for about a half hour, but when i stopped at a convenience store to get off my feet and kill a little more time, she continued on her way. I'm sure that i won't see her again as she leave her lodging at 5:30 each moring and is covering about 35 km (21.5 mi) per day. I'm just not in that much of a hurry and have never felt compelled to cover that much ground on a day-by-day basis. As we went our own ways, she told me that i should call her Onēsan (elder sister) and that she would call me Otōto (younger brother). I guess i've been accepted into her henro family.

Somewhere around 11:30, an elderly woman flagged me down and told me to get off Highway 55. She told me that i should go walk on the paved cycling trail that runs between the coast and the highway. When i told her that i was walking along the highway so that i could find a convenience store to buy some lunch, she didn't even blink when she told me that i still had to get off the highway, that the shoulder was too narrow. Who am i to argue? I just thanked her for the advice and headed over to the cycling trail.

Around noon, the rain stopped and the sun tried to peek out around the clouds. Since i was still trying to kill time, i stopped and took an hour nap on the top of a cement wall along the trail. When i woke up, it was still nice out, but when i started walking my right foot was killing me. I found a convenience store about 1:00 and bought a sandwich for lunch and headed over to another rest area to sit and eat it. While there i decided that the rain had stopped for good and repacked my rain suit.

After lounging around at the rest area until 2:00, i finally headed down the road. For the rest of the way, half would be back on the side of Highway 55 and half on a back road that parallels the highway. By 3:00, it was pouring again, and this time much harder than earlier in the day. Unfortunately that meant the that the rain suit had to come back out until the rain finally stopped for good about 3:45. I received a bottle of tea as settai just as the rain stopped and it was delicious.

Am spending the night in Konan (near Kōchi Airport) and noticed on my way into town that there is a new castle on the highest hill above town. It is completely non-Japanese and would fit in with many of the European castles that i have seen in the past. I wonder if it is an amusement park or if someone just has a lot of money to spend on a hobby.

Not much to say about the scenery today. It was overcast and rainy so the view of the ocean was pretty restricted. As usual, there is nothing to talk about regarding the view along the side of the highway. I passed through one town after another all day. Shikoku has really grown a lot since '99. These towns are bigger, more crowded, and with a lot more traffic than i remember them being 7 years ago.

The weather forcast says that it will be sunny and warm tomorrow, but then cloudy with the chance of rain for the rest of next week. I sure hope they are wrong.

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