{Shikoku Hachijūhachikasho Meguri}

--Thoughts during Week Two--

The walk to Temple 28 was quick and easy as i spent last night only about 2.5 km (1.5 mi) away. While leaving, a couple stopped and gave me a towel as settai with a hand-written sign saying 'Kanzeon Bosatsu' on it. I wonder why they think a towel is a good idea as settai? I take a bath every day, so can't smell like i need it. Then again, i always remember when i lived in Tōkyō and was told that i did stink (very politely, of course) and was told that i should think of finding a different deoderant.

Temple 29 has a lot more cherry trees than i remember from '99. The same shidarezakura (weeping cherry tree) was there, and much bigger, but a whole new section of the compound had been planted with about 6 new trees all near full bloom. It was beautiful. As i was lounging around an elderly man came by to talk. He had lived in the US for a number of years, but refused to speak English. While talking about the henro michi, he told me that he had traveled around the trail (mostly by bus it seems) a total of 340 times. Yes, i said Three Hundred and Forty Times! I commented that this must qualify him as an important sendatsu (pilgrim guide) to which he agreed and gave me one of his ofuda. He is obviously a big shot with the official temple organization and is the president of a pilgrims group in Osaka. 340 times!

Shortly after this man left, another man came up and asked if i was going to Temple 30 next. It was more of a comment than a question because he immediatley followed the question with the comment that i should wait for him while he ran to the Hondō and that we could then go together. I had planned to sit for a half hour or so as my feet are dying, but ...

As we left the compound he asked me how my feet were doing, and when i told him they hurt he said we would take it easy then. Saying that, he set off at just short of a trot. Along the way he said he had had heart toruble so had decided three years ago to walk from his house near Temple 30 to Temple 29 and back at least once a day. He stopped about 2.5 km (1.5 mi) from Temple 30 to head to his house, but showed me the road that i needed to continue following.

Along the way i stopped at a grocery store and bought lunch, stopped at Tosa Shrine and ate it, lounged around for about 20 minutes, and then went over to Temple 30. After visiting the Hondō and Daishidō, and then getting my Nōkyō book stamped. Two other henro that had left Temple 29 at the same time as i had with my new guide finally showed up. We had walked a blistering pace to get there and i had arrived a full half hour before they had.

That walk took all the reserves out of my feet. They were beat and the walk towards Temple 31 was hard and slow. By 3:00 i had gotten as far as i could for the day because i got to a point between Temples 30 and 31 where the next lodging wasn't for another 12 km (7.5 mi) and there was no way my feet were going to carry me that far. So, i walked 1 km (0.5 mi) to a business hotel and got a room for the night.

After checking that they did have a free room, i headed out to find someting for dinner. I had planned to go to a convenience store to get a sandwhich, bit found a local bento shop first. While buying a bento to take back to the hotel room i ate an ice cream bar, which the sales girl decided that i should get as settai since i was a henro.

--Tuesday, 4/4--
Another beautiful sunny morning as i left the hotel a little after 7:00.

By 8:00 i had already gotten lost twice. Don't have a clue how i did it, but instead of climbing up the mounain to Temple 31, i walked around it to the back side. When i asked directions they showed me the way up a trail on the back of the mountain. Somewhere near the top, i got lost again and ended up in a beautiful botanical garden near the temple. If i ever find myself in the area with time to spare, i'd like to come back and see the garden, it is huge and looks very nice and well maintained. But, it took me about 15 minutes to find a map that told me how to get over to the temple.

They have done some construction at Temple 31. The Hondō and Daishidō are the same, but they moved the Nōkyōjo down to a building near the Sanmon. I don't think it was there in '99.

They had also done some construction at Temple 33, Sekkeiji. There is a brand new Hondō and it appears to have been built last year. The Daishidō is still the same old building as before, but the new hondō is bright and shinny and the contrast between the two buildings is intersting to see.

A few observations from the past few days:
» I am going to change my official line and start telling everyone that the henro michi is 90% pavement and cement and 10% off-road trails. I have always maintained that the split was about 80/20, but i think that has changed. My guess is that at least 90% of your time (if not more) is spent on the side of a highway, road, sidestreet, or on the sidewalk. I'll change this on the web site when i get back to Chicago.

» A lot more temples are open than i remember from back in '99. It now seems that the majority of temples keep the front doors of their Hondō and Daishidō open so that you can see inside.

» Being a foreign henro no longer seems to impress many people. Back in '99, i always felt like i stood out. People would look at me in awe just because i was a foreigner and walking the henro trail. This year i don't have the impression that people see me any differently than they see other henro — if henro in general impress them, then so do i, if they don't, then i don't. Of course people still approach me and ask me questions, but those same people would talk to any foreigner they met, even in the grocery store. Or so it seems to me.

» Even the kids no longer make such a big deal of seeing a foreigner on the trail. Back in '99, kids would stop and stare when i approached. As i got closer to them, i could frequenlty hear them mention the word 'gaijin' (foreigner). Now, the vast majority of kids just ignore me as i walk past and unless i take the iniative to say hello, they don't say anything. Several times today, groups of kids would walk or ride past on their bicycles and acted as if i didn't even exist. I guess they are getting used to seeing foreigners here on Shikoku.

On the way to Temple 34, Tanemaji, a woman stopped me and gave me a dyed cotton coin purse with a 5 yen coin in it. In Japanese, 5 yen is pronounced 'Gōen,' and this is the same way you pronounce the word for karma. So, by giving me a 5 yen coin, they are giving me good karma. I very rarely get settai that is specifically related to this story, but it happens. The woman today told me to keep the change i would be giving as offerings at temples in the coin purse, but not to spend the 5 yen that was included.

As i left Temple 34 at 2:30, it started to sprinkle, but didn't amount to much of anything. But, by the time i was entering Tosa City, where i am spending the night, at 3:30, it started to rain again, and this time it was getting serious. By the time i found my ryokan just before 4:00, i was pretty wet. My right foot hurt so bad this afternoon that my head actually hurt. In fact towards the end of the day i could taste the pain in my mouth as a nasty metalic taste, but i don't think it is getting any worse, so that means it must be getting better.

--Wednesday, 4/5--
When i paid for my room this morning, the owner gave me my change and then gave me ¥200 extra and told me that it was settai and that i should buy a bottle of tea with it. With that, i left at 7:00 and headed out to find Temple 35, Kiyotakiji.

Once outside it appeared that while it wasn't raining then, it had been raining all night. Everything was soaking wet and the ditches were full and running rapidly. By 7:30, however, it started to rain again — not hard, but more than a drizzle and steady. That meant i had to stop and put on the rain suit.

Most of the trail up to Temple 35 is on the same road that the cars use, but the last several kilometers or so (a mile) were on a walking trail up the side of the hill. It, like so many other trails, had been cemented over so that it doesn't get washed out in the rain. It had a nice cement ditch along the side to kep the water from running down the middle of the trail (even though that was now cement). Practically speaking, converting these trails to cement makes perfect sense. I have walked on many that were still dirt trails, and they are miserable rutted out trails to walk on in the rain. But, by converting them, less and less of the trail is off cement and asphalt, as i pointed out last night.

While at Kiyotakiji i met another walking henro. He appeared to be in his sixties and we sat and chatted for a while as we both tried to wait out the rain. He told me that he was able to read other prople's Ki and cure them by manipulating it (at least that's what i think he said, i didn't understand every word he said). To show me, he told me to hold out my hand palm down and then put one of his hands above mine and one below with his palms facing my hand. When i told him i didn't feel anything, he told me i should feel my hand warm up. When i told him again that i didn't feel anything, he said that i should because he could feel my ki and that it was doing well. I guess i'm a ki failure so far.

This reminded me of the healer i met and watched work back when i did this walk back in '99. Back then, i didn't understand what he was doing, but having had the explanation today, i'd bet the guy back in '99 was curing people by manipulaing their ki as he did the same kinds of things with his hands.

After the hand experiment, the guy today said that he could cure pain in any part of the body by manipulating it. To show this, he said that if my arm hurt he could heal it by massaging one certain point, and started to manipulate a point on the front of my arm about 7.5 cm (3 in) below my elbow. He asked if my arm hurt and i had to tell him no, to which he said that if it did, this is what he would have had to do. I told him that the only part of my body that hurts is my right foot from the blisters, and he said he could probably cure that as well, but didn't offer to show me how. I'm sure he wasn't saying that he could make the blisters disappear, but could make the pain go away. But, i already know how to do that — ignore it.

While talking a little more he went on to tell me that he had been walking the henro trail continuously for 6 years. When i asked him how many times that was, he said he hadn't been counting; the number of times wasn't important, only your attitude while walking. When i commented that walking in the cold of winter must be hard, he commented that it wasn't all that bad and that he even did waterfall training during the winter. This is when you stand under a waterfall with the water falling right on your head. The point is that only by completely focusing your mind on a chant such as the Heart Sutra or some other object are you able to forget the cold and remain standing there. This is supposed to be great training for focusing your mind.

I commented that this practice is usually done by Shugendo practicioners, to which he replied that yes i was correct and that he was a Shugendo monk. At that point it was time to leave so i wished him a good day and headed out

I made my reservations for the night from a public telephone and then left the temple in the rain. Somewhere about 9:30 it stopped raining, but because the skys were still threatening i left my rain suit on. I regretted that later because it never did start to rain again but i arrived at Temple 36, Shoryuji, a sweaty mess.

About 3.5 km (2.1 mi) of the trip to Temple 36 is on a mountian trail so that you don't have to walk through a long tunnel. Most of that trail is what the old trail probably used to be, no cement and no pavement. Here and there, in the steeper sections, they had paved it with stones, but that wasn't very much of the trail. It was a nice break for the feet, and both that and the scenery were beautiful to see.

Just before arriving at Temple 36, i stopped at a convenience store to get something to drink and an elderly lady stopped to talk to me. We ended up talking for well over a half hour as she walked with me a few blocks toward the temple when we left. She talked about everything from the flowers and trees in the mountains around the town, the mountain village nearby where she was born, the bad habits of the younger Japanese generation, and a poem that she is sending to the local newspaper making fun of two of the current top contenders for the Prime Minister's job when Koizumi retires. It was a poem that she sang to the tune of the Japanese song Sakura. As we parted ways, she gave me settai of what looks like two small rice balls, but they are pink in color and wrapped in leaves from the cherry blossom tree. I'll eat them tomorrow at lunch.

Neither Temple 35 or 36 looks like they have changed at all since i was here in '99. Still the same buldings and i don't see anything new in the compounds.

At Temple 36 i took off my rain suit and as i said, i was soaked in sweat. I should have taken it off earlier, but was just too lazy. After leaving the temple the sun broke out and it turned into a beautiful, sunny day. I expected to find the turn off to my minshuku for the night at about 3:30, but was shocked that i didn't get there until after 4:00. From Temple 36 to that turn off was along a mountain road above the coast that went up and down and up and down, .... I felt pretty good, but i must have been walking slower than i thought.

Once i got to the turn off, i was disappointed to see that i had to drop down to sea level, a drop of about 130 m (425 ft) to a little fishing village. While it was a pretty walk and easy to get down, i knew with each step that first thing tomorow morning i was going to have to retrace that road and climb my way back out. Given that it was 2 km (1.2 mi) i know to expect that to take about an hour.

As has happend numerous times, as i got into town, a woman (the owner) come over to me and asked if i was David. When i said yes she said she was the owner of the minshuku where i would be staying. Either she or someone else had seen me at the top of the hill and she was simply waiting for me to get down the hill.

After checking in, the owner told me to give her my clothes so that she could do my laundry for me. While she was doing that i took a bath and then waited for dinner, which was delicious as usual. Tomorrow is supposed to be sunny and warm.

--Thursday, 4/6--
Another clear, sunny, and warm day.

After breakfast this morning, the owner gave me a bottle of tea and three onigiri (rice balls) for lunch as settai. She also didn't charge me for the beer i drank at dinner last night. Then to top all that off, she told me that she was going to drive me up to the top of the hill and back to the main road. at which point she trotted out the door to get her car. I couldn't see any reason to argue with her and gladly accepted the ride. It saved me an hour of climbing, or there-abouts.

Once i was back on my own, i had a very quite day. Until 11:00, or so, it was more up and down rolling hills as i continued along the Skyline highway. From 11:00 i dropped down and then went into Susaki City where i would find Bangai Temple 5. Before that, however, i found a coffee shop so i could write a couple of postcards (which the owner las night gave me for free since i couldn't find any). I went to the post office to mail them, but the man at the window apologized and told me that the person who sold stamps for international mailing was out to lunch and wouldn't be back for another 40 minutes.

Instead of waiting, he drew me a map and sent me to the main post office since that was on the way to Daizenji, Bangai number 5. I found that, mailed the postcards, and got another map there to the temple.

When i got to Daizenji, there was no one on the office to stamp my book so i laid down and took a short nap. I doubt it was more than 15 minutes and was woken up when that person arrived. After getting the stamp, it was only 1:30, and i had time to kill so i started looking for somewhere to relax. After a few kilometers, i found a Michi No Eki, a sort of way station for henro where they sell all kinds of food, drinks, and trinkets. This one also had a restaurant and a couple of places to just sit an relax.

I found a comfortable couch and settled in to kill an hour so that i would arrive at tonight's minshuku aroudn 4:00. While sitting there and looking through the map book, a woman about my age came around the corner and with an expression of surprised said what i thought was "Omae," which usually means "You." I asked her if we had met before and she assured me that we hadn't, so she must have said something else. Besides that, she went on to speak at a much more formal level than where she would have called me "omae."

Anyhow, she come over and asked the usual questions about whether or not i was walking, where i was from, where i had stopped the night before, and where i was stopping tonight. After that we chatted about her. She is from Osaka and is going around by car for the 4th time. At that time, she said her husband was waiting for her in the restaurant and left. After about 5 minutes she came out again and wanted to talk some more. This time she asked if it was OK to take my picture, to which i agreed. At her asking i gave her my address (snail and email) because she wanted to send my picture to me. This probaly took 10 minutes because she wanted to rewrite all of it so that she could read it. I had been careful and didn't see anything with my writing, but everyone says that they can't read it.

After some thinking she decided that she would just send all the pictures she was taking to me so that i could see the beauty of Japanese cherry blossoms (her words). At that point her husband came out of the restaurant and told her that the food was on the table and that she needed to come in. She did and i left to find a public telephone.

While using the phone to make tomorrow night's reservations, Chiako (that's her name) came up again and gave me a piece of paper with her name and address on it. Since i was talking on the phone she just smiled and left. When i got off the phone, i was reading the address aloud, and when i said her name i heard someone say "Chiako, that's me." When i turned around, there she was. We went over her address so that she was satisfied that i could read it, and then we both said good-bye and went our separate ways.

From there it was a short 45 minute walk to my minshuku for the night. To get there i had to walk through my first three tunnels without sidewalks. The first was rather dark and all there was to walk on was the drainage ditch on the side of the road. Since that was only about 51 cm (20 in) wide, and given that Japanese roads aren't as wide as those in the US (i don't think) it was pretty crowded. When it was just cars there wasn't much problem, but when there were trucks, they get awful close — expecially when two trucks going in the opposite direction happend to meet each other right as they pass me. In this case, the one on my side has now way to move over and give me more room, and is usuallly within 15 cm (6 in) of my shoulder. I don't think i'll ever get used to this. The second tunnels were both brighter and i had about 1 meter (39 in) to walk in.

Checked in a little before 4:00, started some laundry, and got in the bath. To give you an idea on how hot these baths usually are, the tape on my blisters just falls off my feet after only 3-4 minutes. The hot water dissolves the glue that holds the tape to my feet.

--Friday, 4/7--
Had a long day so was out of the minshuku at 7:00 sharp this morning. Today was darn near a perfect day. Sunny, cool, and the first half of the day spent on either back trails in mountains or on small side roads back behind the farmers fields and away from the main roads. Since it poured most of last night (POURED), everything was soaking wet when i started out, but fresh at the same time.

After a pleasant half-hour walk from the minshuku back to the base of the mountains, it was an hour climb up to the pass at the top where i crossed into the next valley. That path was steep but not paved in cement and only had a few sections where they had paved it with stones. From the pass, it was a long, several hour walk back down to sea level and i didn't see anyone all morning.

As i passed through the town of Kure, i remembered nothing of the town itself, but immediately remembered the river on the far side of town. It is beautifully lined with cherry blossom trees for about 1 km (0.6 mi) and it was obvious that the town had partied well when the trees were in full bloom. They were past full bloom, but still very, very beautiful. Speaking of beautiful, while there were few cherry blossom trees in bloom up in the mountains today, the tsutsuji (azelea) were busting at the seams to show off as i walked by.

The walk through Kure was along a paved road back through the middle of nowhere. It was quiet and peaceful and just what the doctor ordered for good mental health. I walked along the road for several hours and during that time probably only gained about 50 m (164 ft) in altitude. Then, in the last 1 km (0.6 mi) before the end of that section of the trail it changed to a mountain trail again and climbed 200 m (660 ft). It was short and steep, but it did get me to the top and the next pass where i needed to drop down into the next valley.

From there i walked along another back road and stopped to have lunch sitting on a rock next to someone's rice field. Great lunch of sliced ham on bread with pecans in it and a bottle of juice — all while listening to the frogs in the fields watching the wind blow through the bamboo and other trees, and ejoying the peace and quiet.

I made tomorrow night's reservations from a public phone just before checking into tonight's lodging. I smiled to myself as i did it because i can still remember a woman back in Kōchi City several days ago telling me that i could probably finish in about 3 more days if i wanted to. Here i am three days later and i still have a long way to go. I couldn't believe she was serious so just told her that it depended on my foot and let it go at that.

From here at Temple 37 (Iwamotoji) it is about 81 km (49.5 mi) down to the next temple. I plan to walk that over three days, 30 km (18.3 mi) tomorrow, 27, or so, on Sunday, and the final 24 on Monday. That should leave me three days of walking left to Temple 39, the last for this year. And the woman back in Kōchi said that i could roll these last nine days into three. :-)

Iwamotoji looks the very same as i remember it back in '99. I'm not sure about the new looking shukubo (temple lodging), but wouldn't be surprised if that was there back then. In the main temple, the cieling is covered with paintings. It is divided into sections about 30 cm x 30 cm (12 in x 12 in) with each square getting a picture of its own representing some aspect of Buddhist philosophy and teachings. You could sit there for hours and look at them, and apparently some do as there is a couch in the back of the hall for anyone to use.

I tried to convince some poor little 8 year old girl today that she was also a henro, but she just didn't know what to make of it. She was walking home from school on the same henro trail that i was walking along (at this point that means the street in front of her house). We greeted each other and i asked her if she was a henro as well. She looked at me like i was nuts and said no. So i pointed out the obivous to her: This is the henro trail isn't it? Yes, she replied. And, i continued, just like me, you have a pack on your back don't you? Uh, yes, she replied as you could see the wheels spinning in her head. And, i went in for the kill, you are walking, aren't you? Uh huh, she barely wispered. There, see, you are a henro too, i told her, happy that she could see my point. To that, she just stared at me and said nothing.

Seeing that she wasn't overly anxious to agree with me i told her to take care, she said thanks, and we parted ways. From there i walked on the main highway for the last few hours of the trip into Kubokawa and Temple 37.

Breakfast isn't until 7:00 tomorrow morning and isn't even in this building. I'm supposed to go to a dining hall over by the train station, about a 2-3 minute walk from where i'm staying tonight. That's a first.

--Saturday, 4/8--
A scortching hot day and everything that yesterday wasn't. Very few opportunities to get off the main Highway 56, hot, at least 22 degrees (72), not an ounce of shade anywhere to be found, and a wind strong enough to puch me around at times.

It's an 80 km (49 mi) walk from Temple 37 (Iwamotoji) down to Cape Ashizure and Temple 38 (Kongofukuji). It takes normal people 3 days to cover the difference, but today a 62 year old retired Japanese man half my size passed me on his way to doing it in 2.

Breakfast this morning was in a different building and i was told last night to pay for my room at the same place after eating breakfast. I find that fascinating. I think if this were the US, 95% of the customers would just walk the other way in the morning and never pay anyone. This really is the honor system as there was no one there when i left the minshuku to see that i was headed towards the dining hall and not down the road toward tonights lodging.

A van pulled off the road in front of me late this morning and when he got out it was obvious he was waiting to talk to me. It was equally obvious after about 30 seconds that he wanted to practice his English with me, but i had the time so didn't care. He first told me that he had seen me backtracking a few hours earlier and wondered if i knew where i was going. I had to explain to him that i had only backtracked about 20 meters (66 ft) because i had missed my turn and had to go back and turn to the right. Once i had done that, all was well, and now, several hours later, i was still on the right road.

We then chatted about several interesting topics. His first last English teacher was a woman named Ms. Erika from Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, but she is now in Kyōto so he no longer studies with her. His current teacher is from Australia. He's been to Hawaii twice, both on business. He is a futon salesman and drives about 20,000 km (12,200 mi) each year. This morning he had been driving to Kamikawaguchi to see a customer when he saw me backtracking. Now, on his way back home, he saw me again and needed to stop to see if he could help me. With all that under our belts, he gave me ¥300 as settai and we went our seperate directions.

I was dying of thirst late in the afternoon since i hadn't seen any vending machines for a long time and had already drank my emergency can of water. Luckily, as i was walking past a row of houses, i saw a basket hanging from a tree in someone's front lawn with a sign on it saying it was water as settai for henro that were passing. I grabbed a bottle and shouted thank you as i continued down the road. Only someone who has walked this dry and barren stretch of the trail would know that that is a great settai to offer.

Just a few minutes before reaching my minshuku for the night, i was stopped by a man who said he ran a little stand where he gave free food and drinks to passing walking henro. He asked me to go in and offered me some coffee. I opted for green tea. There were a few other guys with him, and then followed us into the building but didn't really say anything. As i was sitting down where he told me to, he asked what country i was from. He then followed that up by asking what city. When i said Chicago, he said "and you work at The University of Illinois, right?"

When i asked how he could have known that, he said that he had been waiting for me to pass as he had heard of me from other (or another?) henro. He was expecting me to pass this afternoon. We didn't really chat all that much as he had nothing to say really other than to introduce me to two of the other guys and to tell them to take their time and to ask me anything. :-)

It turns out that the other guys were part of a group of 6 that were also walking around the island, but were going very slowly, expecting to take about 68 days. They worked for an NGO that worked with people that are classified as Hikikomori here in Japan. These people basically just turn their backs on society, shut themselves in their rooms at home (or, more likely, in their bedrooms at their parents house — even if they are in their 30s), and NEVER come out again. Well, they may sneak out at 1 in the morning to run to the convenience store for something when they are sure they won't meet anyone else.

This NGO takes groups of hikikomori out on the pilgrimage to try and reintroduce them to society in a slow and healthy manner. This group consisted of 6 people, but the two i was talking to said they were along as a support team. Most of the time they were camping out, but when the weather was bad they would stay at a minshuku or lodging at one of the temples.

One other member of the group came in the building, but he studiously avoided me and said nothing other than to tell me the time when i asked. I took it that he was one of the hikikomori.

No baseball on TV tonight that i can find. Darn. But, the weather says tomorrow will be another clear, warm day. Then it will rain all day Monday, half of Tuesday, and all of Thursday.

--Sunday, 4/9--
At breakfast this morning i had a great surprise. As soon as i opened the door to the dining room i could smell the coffee. The owner had put a little coffee pot right there on the table and made enough for two cups and it was delicious. Luckily i was the only customer in the minshuku last night so no one saw me drooling on the table as i smelled the coffee while eating. I was out the door right at 7:00 this mornign and found surfers already out in the water at the beach only 15 minutes walk from where i stayed. Today might not have been a great day for them as there was little wind, but i'll bet that yesterday's wind made great waves for those who were out yesterday.

One of the differences between the two capes here in K!chi Prefecture is that the Miroto side is entirely along the coast. With few exceptions, the trail is right along the ocean and it is always there in sight. On the other hand, a lot of the Ashizuri side is separated from the ocean by a ridge of mountains. That is, as you walk you have mountains on both your left and your right. That makes it seem more remote even though it probably isn't. But, given that i prefer the mountains to the ocean, i prefer the Ahsizuri side of the island.

As i walk through those mountains, i am amazed all the time at how many shades of green there are. In these mountains there must be at least a dozen different shades of green, then when you mix in the yellows and oranges, and the reds and maroons from the cherry trees already past bloom, the beauty is enough to stop you in your tracks. I love the mountains.

In late morning, i met Kōbō Daishi along the side of the road. I had come to a point in the trail where one sign said to go straight and one sign said to turn left. I knew where i was, so that wasn't an issue. The sign that said go straight said it would take me directly to Shimanto Bridge. The problem was that the sign that said to turn left, and which would take me along the coastal route, said something else that i couldn't read.

According to the map book, there are two ways to cross over the Shimanto River. The first is to take the upper route and cross the bridge, as indicated by that one sign. The second way is to take the lower route and then take a ferry across the river just where it dumps into the ocean. The sign that i was having problems with said that something had happened with the ferry in 2005, but there were 2 characters that i couldn't read so i didn't know what. Had it's service hours changed? That is what i was trying to decifer when Kōbō showed up in the guise of a 70-something year old man on a motor scooter.

He simply pulled up next to me, shut off the scooter, took off his helmet, and then sat there waiting for me to say something. I greeted him and told him that i was trying to decided which route to take. He started off by telling me that i didn't want to take the route directly to the bridge because it was on the highway and the scenery was nothing but houses. He strongly recommended that i should take the more scenic coastal route. Since i was already planning to do that, so far so good. That meant that i would be taking the ferry across the river, so i asked him how often the ferry ran (even though it is written in the map book). He then told me what those two ununderstood kanji meant. Oh no, he said, i couldn't use the ferry. It had gone out of service last year, in 2005. Ah ha....

I pulled out my map and we then discussed my possiblities for walking most of the way to the ferry and then cutting back to the main highway about half way there. It turned out to be very simple as he pointed out the landmarks i needed to look for and where i should turn. I did all that and all went well.

Sometime in the early part of the afternoon, i meet another henro walking towards me. When i stopped and greeted him, he told me that he had been walking in the same direction i was until a few hours ago. He then had to turn around and walk back to Nakamura to catch a train to go back home to Ōsaka. He would begin from where he left off sometime later. He then went on to tell me that he had been told that an interesting foreign henro was just a little behind him and that he had hoped to meet me so considered himself lucky that he had just before returning home. Pretty heady stuff. Luckily, with only one remaining working memory neuron i'll forget all about it by tomorrow morning and it can't go to my head. He gave me settai of a few pieces of candy and some senbei (rice crackers) and the we parted ways. Later in the afternoon i passed the candy on to two small kids out riding their bikes.

I'm staying at Minshuku Kumomo tonight and it turns out that i stayed here back in '99. I didn't realize that until i saw the town, but as soon as i entered from the north, i recognized it immediately and then i knew that i must have stayed at Kumomo 7 years ago. I remember staying just on the south side of town, and there are no other minshuku on the map in that area other than Kumomo. When i saw it, i wouldn't have recognized it, but when i got inside i remembered it immediatley. The owner told me that my name had sounded familiar when i made the reservation, but she thought that i had said i came from England the last time. So much for any lofty ideas of my Japanese skills. :-)

I'm staying in a small room in a storage building out in front of the minshuku. It is clean and nice, but no more than 1.8 m x 2.7 m (6 ft x 9 ft) in size. There is no heater (but i haven't been using them at night anyhow) and no TV, but it was all she had when i called to make the reservation so i took it. As soon as i got here, she sucessfully talked a Japanese man into changing rooms with me. I hadn't even seen the room yet and we were still standing in the entrance, but she explained to him how big i was and how small the room would be and that he was staying in a huge room (that could probably sleep 10) all by himself. And so on. Well he agreed, but i refused. I wasn't about to kick this poor guy out of his room just so i could have it. I told her the small room was perfect and that since all i intended to be doing was sleeping, i didn't need any more room. She seemed quite pleased and is doing my laundry for me.

After the owner showed me my room, she told me to come in and have a cup of instant coffee and visit with the other guests. Low-and-behold, onēsan (a woman i met last week) is one of the other guests and when i greeted her as such, everyone just looked at us in amazement. She had to explain and that made all laugh.

I'll get to Temple 38 tomorrow by noon and then round the cape and head back north before stopping for the night. Everyone says that i will get to Temple 39 on Wednesday night unless i'm a slacker. Everyone else here tonight has already been to Temple 38 and is on their way back north to go to Temple 39. It seems that almost all henro come back this way to get to 39 and i am that rare bird that goes all the way around the coast without backtracking. That adds several days to the tirp.

As i came out from dinner, i met the mother of the owner talking to another henro. It turns out to be a guy that stayed in the same minshuku that i did several nights ago. He also has already been to 38 and is headed back north and when i asked him how that was possible given that the last time we met he said he could barely walk for the blisters, he gave me the standard henro answer, "Gambarimashita" (i just gave it my all). Since he is camping out wherever possible, he is spending the night in the bus stop just up the road. The owners mother found him brushing his teeth at the garden hose in front of the minshuku and told him he could go in and use the bath. That made him a very happy man, and symbolized everything this trip is about. Henro, whether camping out or staying in minshuku, and the owners all work together to look out for each other. It is an amazingly friendly group to join.

If i get to Temple 39 on Wednesday night as told i will (rather as told i must), i will spend the night there and will take the train to Kōchi City on Thursday morning. I will certainly visit Kōchi Castle in the afternoon and then must decide wether to return to Tokushima City on Thursday night or Friday morning. But, i have time to think about that so will postpone the decision for a few more days.

Tomorrows forecast according to the owner is for rain all day.

Correction. I juat came back out from going in to use the bathroom and was told while in there that the forcast is now predicting very heavy rains. Tomorrow could be interesting, but i still remember the pouring rains i ran into between Temples 26 and 27 back in '99 that i was told had been just like a typhoon. I can't believe that tomorrow's can be any worse. We'll see.

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