{Shikoku Hachijūhachikasho Meguri}

--WEEK SEVEN--

We walked over 23 km today and that's a new record. We had planned to get on a bus at about the 17 km mark, but when we got there we would have had to wait about 2 hours for the next bus. Eric decided to walk.

We intend to skip the climb up and down between where we are now and Temple 44, as well as the climb up to Bangai 7 tomorrow. We'll take a taxi up to Bangai 7 but then walk back down and on to Bangai 8. We'll probably taxi back into town and to the train station, where we'll get a train into Matsuyama. Then we have to find a bus to Kuma, where T44 and T45 are located.

We took Sunday off and did some sightseeing in Uwajima. First stop was the all important (historically, of course) sex museum. Three floors packed floor to ceiling with more books, magazines, implements, pictures, statues, and other "stuff" than you can imagine. I can tell you that we, as human being, appear to be not all that imaginative — every culture in every part of the world seems tom do it in the same ways, although many of those ways appear to require a lot of physical dexterity.

From there it was off to castles and shrines and then coffee and cake before heading back to the hotel for the night. The next day was so and humid we didn't walk very far, but we did take the time to stop and get haircuts.

When we get to Matsuyama later this week we will take part of a day to visit Dogo Omsen, an onsen famous all around Japan.

Tonight we are staying in Tokiwa Ryokan and i'm telling everyone that I chose it because I assumed Tokiwa Takako, a famous, and attractive, Japanese actress, would be here. Since she isn't, i said i was going to complain to the management. At dinner the other guests thought I was serious and were rolling on the floor laughing. ;-)

Did I mention the rain????

According to tonight's weather, the rains are now over and we are in for great weather for the next week. Yippee!

Met only our second foreigner yesterday. An Australian woman was staying at the same hotel so we chatted about her bicycle trip around parts of Shikoku and western Japan. We keep hearing stories of a man from Holland being just behind us, but we haven't met him yet. Rumors are he's possibly in the same town tonight, but different lodging.

Another tough day for Eric today. Because of all the rain we've been having, I skipped most of the mountain trails up to Temple 45 today and stayed on the side of the roads. Part of the one trail we did walk had turned itself into a small creek and other places were soaked and slippery. Staying on the roads was safer, but it added extra distance that had to be walked. I have to add it up tomorrow but i'm assuming we walked about 20 km today. The walking will be distinctly easier for the next week.

I've decided that o'm going to add a new page to the web site over the summer where I address the question of just what, exactly, is a Henro? All right, I admit up front that that's not something that can be answered "exactly," but I want to think out loud on the site about the issue.

For me, right now, a large part of the answer is that being a Henro is about your mental attitude while on the trail. It's about living consciously, wide-awake, aware of your external surroundings as well as your internal thoughts, emotions, state of mind, etc. It's about your approach to Living, not your approach to walking. I'll flesh this out in more detail over the summer.

Like splattered raindrops
Thoughts come and go who remains
Alive and aware

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