Reflections of a Shikoku Pilgrim

{Shikoku Hachijūhachikasho Meguri}

--WEEK TWO--

--4/4: On The Trail--

--4/9: Lazy Days And Then Hard Work--
Matsushita-san, a friend and the editor of the English language map boom of the henro trail, wanted to walk with us today so we met him at the Tokushima train station at about 8:30. After a coffee and snack at the Starbuck's, we took the train back to near Temple 17 and walked there for our visit.

From Temple 17, we spent the morning wandering the back streets looking at Shinto shrines and looking for folk stories along the way. It was a nice day of wandering and sharing conversation.

By afternoon, though, we realized we had a long way to go to get to the lodging we had reserved for the night. Unfortunately, this meant that we had to endure a forced march all afternoon to get to lodging by about 6:30. Then, after dropping our bags and resting for a while, we had to go back out to find food at the local grouchy store for both dinner and breakfast tomorrow morning — the lodging didn't provide either.

A completely uneventful day, but very satisfying.

--4/10: Kamiyama Folk Festival--
Today's plan called for a trip back to the town of Kamiyama, through which we had passed a few days ago, in order to visit a folk festival held each year just before rice planting begins. As we were told, the farmers hold the festival in order to have one last chance to goof off before the serious work of spring begins. Since the festival didn't start until late morning, we had no reason to get up early and slept in.

We finally got on the road about 9 am and walked just a few kilometers to find a well on the side of the road that the Daishi himself was supposed to hav dug with his walking stick. It had a nice statue of the Daishi by it with the story written on a stone. We were able to get a local person tell the story on film for Eric.

From there we took a taxi up to the festival and had a great day of bunraku (puppet plays), performed by both adults and kids, along with some choral singing. All of the performers are local to the area and volunteer their time.

From there we took a bus back to Tokushima Station, where Matsushita-san found a train back to Takamatsu and we found a train to near our lodgng for the night near Temple 18.

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