Last night my legs had been in pains and morning wasn't much better. I had overwent yesterday clearly trying to do as much as possible in the cool morning. Heels and ankles had it hard. So plan B. Rather than do the 71-74 today I would do 2 bekkaku temples by train. Less walking so hopefully allows legs to heal a bit. Albeit puts me even less of a walking pilgrim but ah well. I'm still MOSTLY walking pilgrim and these ones are in rather inconvenient places requiring lots of backtracking. Especially as one of them has the shortest route through mountain from temple 71 marked as unsafe so wide detour required...
But before this there were morning prayers at the temple at 5:30 which meant early wake up. This time I did understood couple parts. Namu daishi henjo kongo that was chanted at two separate parts and heart suttra as well. Those you learn to recognize quickly on this pilgrimage. Others were gibberish for me. I noticed several monks that appeared women. One certainly sounded one but with all having totally bald heads it was hard to be sure on couple and this made me think just how to separate men and female faces from features. The one that sounded was fairly clearly women. Cheekbones were big tellers. Several were clearly men. They were easy to recognize from jaws. But two were hard to say either way.
After ceremony was over after 45 minutes we were invited to walk through pitch black tunnel. Yey. I love these. We were supposed to hold left hand on wall(guides direction where to go so you don't literally walk straight to a wall!) and keep chanting namu daishi henjo kongo. Well I quickly learned also to put right hand ahead least I run over others! I was behind big queue of old grandmothers who were doing it very slowly and well all have their own paces. And at times we didn't advance at all.. clearly less confident on these than I. I have been through couple so on my own I stroll it at fairly normal pace. It's just slightly turning tunnel with good height and no sudden dangers so provided there's no HUMAN ahead you can move with confidence.
After the ceremony there was breakfast which I ate with gusto though lot smaller than dinner had been. Once this was done I packed up and left to the train station picking up some food on my way(that breakfast was tiny...). Took me a while to get to first destination though as I had to wait for train change but eventually I made it. Incidentally yesterday I had came from opposite direction in this train.
Gate to the Bekkaku temple 18(I do this before 17 due to lodging locations. 17 is closer to the lodging of the day. On foot it would be either after temple 71 or after 76/77 depending on timings. If you could come to here from 71 straight this would be easiest to visit then but as it is...) Kaiganji(Coast temple). Uniquely the Niomon gates have rather than usual Nio statues they have statues of two sumo wrestlers that were active post second world war that came from this area.
Incidentally I missed out the Oku-No-In which has more traditional gate and Daishi hall :( Drat! You know what? With all the things I have missed I really feel like one day I want to walk this pilgrimage again! (all through in one go would be dream but to keep pace reasonable would need to be probably bit over 2 months...Kinda hard to get that long holiday...So will have to be in parts as well. Well maybe after retiring few decades later!).
Temple legends claim this was birth home of Kukai's mother(though other sources I have read claims she was raised near Nara...Old histories are rather unreliable!). Kukai is claimed to have been born in the Oku no In.
In 807 Kukai is said to have carved statue of Maitreya(future Buddha said to come) and set up building here though Honzon is not that but Sho Kannon Boddhisatva(the root form of Kannon Boddhisatva). Later in 816 he's said to have carved statue of himself to the temple.
Chōsokabe burned down the temple in 1583 which was rebuilt in 1590.
Now that's pair of guardians you don't see often in temple gate!
The main hall.
I spent some time here talking with the temple staff. Also young(though when I first seen him his posture made me think of retired elderly people) pilgrim arrived and we nodded briefly as I was leaving.
Back to station and to my annoyance realized I had 1.5h wait time.
Should have checked this at the temple as I might just as well been there more(or you know go see that oku no in...)...well long waits means...quick
nap. Actually got some sleep on the station bench. Eventually boarded
the train and back to Tadotsu station and there...more wait. I also caused another
pilgrim on his way to where I had been coming from on morning miss his train as
we talked. Did try to point train is leaving but quess not strongly
enough to make him realize what was happening. At least he had just 15 more minutes for next chance(I was heading same direction but further so I needed to wait for yet another train) so we talked this and that
and he took a selfie with us. That's been fairly unusual this year.
Eventually I got to the next destination and figured trains aren't neccessarily
always so much of a time saver for pilgrim after all. Day was already past noon
so in 5 hours I had done just 1 temple and was now on my way to 2nd. On
foot this would have been 15km or so easily. On these rural areas trains aren't
that often so you can end up waiting a lot.
From
here it would be hardest part of today. Though just 2km or so one way
but it was again hot as noon was there and I had no clouds to save me.
So loaded up with drinks I walked. It wasn't all that bad though with mostly
flat road. And then it became lots of trees though not much shade from
sun straight above me. Then I started to see water. And some more water. And then
what looked like HUGE lake. Was THAT the Mannoike? The famous water
reservoir built by Kukai's help?
The Honzon here is Yakushi Nyorai. This temple has neither gate nor Daishi hall though in place of the Daishi hall there's 3.3 meter tall statue of the great teacher looking down at the reservoire. Statue was completed in 1933 as part of restoration of this temple.
As usual this temple was burned down by Chosokabe's armies. Just HOW many temples did that guy burn down anyway? Seems like nearly every! The original honzon of Sho Kannon statue was also moved to another temple. It was only later in 1932 in 1100th anniversary of death of Kukai that this temple was restored.
Getting to the temple I figured it could be. After doing my
prayers at the main hall I got my
stamp and asked if that is indeed the famous reservoir. Yes it was. It
seems it was originally much smaller but Kukai led operation that got it to
the current size that was HUGE. Seems you can't even see all of it from one
spot. Wow. Just wow.
We talked
quite a bit and she even said I sound just like japanese which I find
hard to swallow but thanks for the compliments anyway. As I was leaving
the "old but young" pilgrim from previous temple showed up. I asked out
of curiosity how he had got(train lines not being that common). He said
something about ROPEWAY? Did I mishear something? Can't figure any
ropeway that would be used to get here. Anyway we talked this and that
and as usual Finland was common topic.
I also got myself handmade ice cream from a vendor outside of
temple gate. Lovely on this heat and good chance for yet more chatting with lovely old grandmother.
Then back to the station and
there...yet more waiting. Rural trains! Could think I was in Finland if
the trains would be late all the time! There were pair of
teenage girls either coming from photoshooting or going to photoshooting
by the looks of the big cameras they were lugging around. I also spotted manga to read so what to do
while waiting was solved. 45 minutes later boarded the train and went to next station
which is where girls dropped off as well. Headed toward my lodging but
on the route spotted udon restaurant. Yey. Had been looking forward
trying sanuki udon that's famous in this prefecture so dived in and oh boy oh boy. I love
udon and this is indeed quite a thing! Words cannot describe the awesomeness of Sanuki Udon.
Then
to the lodging on onsen. I signed in, usual routine and among explanations
realized this is one of those, these days quite rare, onsens that offer mixed
gender baths. Japan's strict laws on those they set up due to wanting to
please foreign countries after meiji revolution(foreign countries said Japanese were barbarians as then mixed gender bathing was no big deal in Japan's public baths) means that as far as I
know no NEW ones can be opened so guess this is 150years or so old onsen
though building itself is modernized. Anyway mixed gender bathing would
be on outdoor bath up to 7pm after which 2 hours ladies only, then 2
hours men only. I went red from the mere idea though albeit here women
are given option of bathing suit they can borrow. Some onsens have
strict no clothes to bath policy. Either way skip for me! Too shy for
that.
(btw there is actually type of quests to whom this caters perfectly. Specifically couples who want to relax on bath together which in Japan is obviously hard requiring either these or private reservation for bath which is possible in places but of course costs money)
(btw there is actually type of quests to whom this caters perfectly. Specifically couples who want to relax on bath together which in Japan is obviously hard requiring either these or private reservation for bath which is possible in places but of course costs money)
Before anything else though
trip to Konpira-san which is the shinto shrine on top of mountain with
over 700 steps, and over 1300 more for inner shrine for the brave though
currently offlimits due to landslides. Being here would be waste to not
go at least to the main shrine and would have made staying here senseless. Just stay closer to where I would be starting tomorrow if I wouldn't go there!
So
leaving most of my gear to room I went in for climb. Info said 1.5h, I did
it in 1h. Met family with dad, mother and 2 kids who had it easy as
parents raised them up by hands much to the kids amusement. I'm sure kids could have done but found it too fun to do it this way! Hard for
parents no doubt raising kids all those steps.
Yet another stairway. Front of this was vendor selling drinks. Bought one. Good place to sell for sure. After this climb(and in this heat!) I was soo thirsty.
On
top usual shrine. Did quick bows there. Looking around I ran into first
solar powered boat made out of aluminium in the world. Out of all the
things on japanese shrine on top of mountain there's a boat?
Back down. I hate going downstairs.
Funny ogre statue :D
Trip
down went fast enough. On lodging straight to(normal rather than the mixed gender outdoor) bath. Then I
headed toward coin laundry to wash clothes. Also asked staff if there's
place to buy shoes and turns out there might be and going to the shopping street she showed me(conveniently on route to the coin laundry) found there was and it was still open! Bought myself new shoes.
Old ones had heels pretty much dived in.
New ones helped bit but we'll see how they hold up. Will keep old ones around for a while just in case.
After
that tasty dinner. Couple japanese couples, one westerner-japanese
couple and me. Superb dinner. Bath was fairly simple for onsen and for
this price but at least meal is top notch. Funny when one waitress
talked with me about me and my trip she would then go to the other and
relay what she had just heard. This went on couple times much to my
amusement.
Back to get my laundry(conveniently this had washing and drying on same machine with one program. Saved me 2km extra trip!),
then back to room. After 9pm went for the male only open bath. This might have
nice views but the wooden planks prevent views. Clear plastic would be
good for views. Albeit then you would be maybe seen from the town as
well...Overall not impressed with the baths of this onsen especially for the price. If it wasn't for super tasty food and helpful and friendly staff would have felt ripped off.
For tomorrow lodging went
weird. I couldn't get lodging from where i wanted and coming
closer(rather than force to use train) I actually ended up back to
temple 75 where I had left today...not doing much of progress :D
At least next 3 days should be shorter. Heels thank!
Walked 12,17km, total 292,45km.
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