Day 11. Beaten by heat

19.07.2018

Morning started fairly normally with breakfast and then off we were. This is place where you don't generally waste time and breakfast was 6am sharp. This lodging is definitely mean lean well oiled pilgrim service station with almost certainly no quests except pilgrims. Incidentally the owner has ran this for 50 years and done the pilgrimage on foot 7 times himself. Respect. I'm glad I got to meet him. Wonder how many years he still is going to doing this? Everything has limits but he's so energetic wouldn't surprise me if he lived to be 100!

Up on early morning you get nice views. I had left most of the contents of backbag so had just backbag for water system, some drinks, stamp book and suttra book. For some reason Mr. Okada insisted I leave candles etc as unneeded. Weird but I decided to trust him. He's multi-time veteran of the pilgrimage so he's obviously more knowledgeable about it than I am!

The elder pilgrim started up first. I went 2nd and younger(well year younger than me) who would be going to Unpenji rather than bekkaku like me and the elder left last though caught up with me soon. We parted ways on the crossroad and I suspect I won't meet him again except maybe near temple if he's already coming back.

Small lizard that got a good scare out of me.

At first my left feet's smallest toe was giving me some grief. Funny how smallest part of my body is giving me largest amount of grief. But this subsided soon and taking reqular breaks I was doing pretty good pace in my opinion. And left feet was feeling good. I passed konbini marked on map and I thought I might come this far on my way back leaving about 6.5km for a taxi. Originally had considered taking taxi from the town from halfway but feet were feeling great so considered changing plans. Nearly 40km in a day would be impossible from the get-go though.

Didn't at first meet any people but views were great apart from the couple tunnels but those were short ones..

Ooo would have liked to eat some takoyaki(grilled octopus) but closed. Whether due to early morning or permanently I don't know.

When I got to Miyoshi town though I started to meet more people and had some short chats here and there. Unlike yesterday today had also plenty of vending mchines. Something I took advantage of. From one fellow coming from the opposite direction I learned that the other henro was about kilometer ahead but that means some 15 minutes or so so basically could be on the other side of the moon. Best chance to meet him would be mountain path if he comes down it or temple proper if I can keep up the pace roughly(in case he uses ropeway going down. If he uses ropeway for both...well I might not meet him but I suspected he would walk at least one direction).

Trying to take photo of a butterfly. That's tricky business.

It was already getting fairly hot. Not a good prospect.

Huge dam.

Another christian quote. "Believe the true god. Jesus christ"

Pilgrim themed Coca Cola bottle. Had to try it out. Nothing unusual in taste. Just fancy packaging and higher price for less liquid. Pass from now on.

The river view were amazing but eventually the quiet road changed to town proper. Here I got into slight trouble as road works had closed the road I was supposed to take. I went left searching for an alternative road but suddenly had sense of unease. I took out google map and was starting to suspect this is bad route for me when I heard noise behind. Old lady was trying to get my attention and informed me I had needed to turn RIGHT for small walker sized bridge to take. Thank you very much! And good thing for the sense of unease or I might have outpaced her before she would have gotten my attention. I continued onward and started climb when suddenly she popped along in a car offering ride to the ropeway. I think she did that on purpose. I politely declined though. It wasn't that far off(though hot climb on rising sun) and wanted to walk as much as I could. I would be using taxi but I would at least walk as far as I felt I could.

I arrived to the point where mountain route toward temple started and started to climb...

There's nice and straight ropeway but noooo. I have to be stubborn enough to climb this on this heat!

...and damn it was hot and rough climb. At first small section STEEP climb in sun. Then under trees but the road was full of these natural rocks which made climbing hard. I kept climbing and I kept climbing and I was so exhausted. This was lot harder than Yokomineji actually. I took several breaks on fallen trees and was glad of my hydration system. Whoever invented that was a genius.

Eventually I came across restaurant that looked like closed and temple gate but didn't see kanji for temple I was looking forward. Putting considerations of way forward for later I ate a bit of stuff I had with me. I figured this might be the restaurant that David Turkington described in his blog, which was first real info I got on this pilgrimage, as one that was due to ropeway already out of popularity in his time 20 years ago. Think years did their job and it's closed for good now. The tale of that restaurant was so sorry I had actually decided that if by some miracle it is still hanging on I would go there and eat but seems I had to rely on energy bar and snacks I had with me. I doubt enough people climb this way now with ropeway to make restaurant profitable. Must have been profitable before ropeway though. Had they sold food and drinks I certainly would have dived in even without intention to eat there! That climb was HARD. One of the hardest ones I have done on this island.

After eating I started to wonder where the path is. Temple gate is obvious answer but why it would be this far? I was still supposed to be almost 1km from temple. Maybe it's another temple? Another route led left of that but that looked like "no passing". Eventually did notice henro marker that pointed out toward temple gate so that's where I went.

At first gentle climb. Then I arrived into stairways. HUGE stairways. Steep long VERY LONG stairways. They never seemed to end. I got through one and there was more. There were 2 people ahead, workers by look of them, who were taking rest bit futher up where I collapsed for rest. Here I was totally beaten down and these keep asking me questions. First time I felt like "please don't talk to me, just let me rest" but did my best to answer them. They were suggesting going to oku-no-in which would be another set of stairways like these. As much as I would like to see the views they praised I decided there I just couldn't do it. Nope. Not can do. Should have come by ropeway to see that.

Took me 3 rest breaks to get through the stairs arriving to bekkaku temple #15 Hashikuraji(Chopstick warehouse temple...Sometimes these names are weird). At the top I first took a breather. Then searched for the main and daishi halls. Only found one hall though. 

So the usual temple legend introduction. Seems around year 828 Kukai on one more round circle over the island(this would be like his 3rd?) felt spiritual experience here and climbed the mountain. When he did the Konpira Daigongen appeared saying(with my best guess of translation with help of others) "By my word I shall save whoever offers chopsticks"(sounds weird though but as I said my best guess of meaning of rather hard sentence in japanese for me. Though friend noted that "All chopstick users refers to basically "everybody". Owning to the ubiquoty of chopsticks in Japan. So it's basically "By my word I vow to save all living people"). Kukai then carved statue of Konpira Daigongen and built temple building here.

During Edo period around 1677 and later in 1826 the temple lost most of it's buildings by fire. Seems this temple has without a fail every morning at 6:30 and 18:00 performed Goma ceremony at the Goma hall. And each year 4th of august(drat I'm supposed to be at Tokyo then) there's ceremony for chopsticks here.

Seems that as an after effect of the Shinto/Buddhism separation both Buddhism style(suttra reading) AND Shinto style(clasping hands) is considered valid way of worship here. Either way there indeed was no need for candles and incent.

 The main hall.

Weird. Having done routines I went to get my stamp and met one of the most jolly guys I have ever met. His life motto seems to be everything is wonderful and his laughter was free and plentiful. Even as worn down as I was that was infectuous. Superb friendly person though you will, by the looks of it, need japanese to talk with him.

I was worn down, tired, it was getting hot, i don't like going down mountains and the path seemed easy to slip and twist your ankle which my shoes aren't supporting well being more for asphalt so i opted to take the ropeway down. And kinda glad i did. Views were amazing.

 Video of going down. Ropeway might not suit for purists but darn the views are always nice on ropeways.

From down i started retracing steps. At the place where roadworks were on I stopped for a dinner.

 Having eaten it I was leaving when staff rushed out and gave me settai of cookies etc and another that was basically big plastic bag full of ice And maybe ice water. I wish I wasn't by then so exhausted I forgot the osmefuda but at least did give lots of thanks though originally wasn't sure what to do with the ice bag. At first I put it on my shoulder but then I thought maybe it would fit in my hat? So attempted and it worked. Head felt heavy with extra weight but oh so cool.

 Not sure is the bag of ice visible from there.

So there I was walking with icebag on my head and it was bloody hot. At the point I left town and entered highway there was info plate claiming 38 degrees. I was drinking as much as I could stomach and using vending machines like crazy. Was doing okayish pace covering about 5km of the 10(if I walked all the way to lodging I estimated it would be like 38-39km day...) I needed when I realized my head was all fuzzy and I felt seriously like puking. This started to feel dangerous and start of a heatstroke. I saw rest spot on what looked like temple entrace and went there having decided right there to call it a day and get myself a taxi. However explaining where I was proved rather difficult being middle of a highway without good reference points from map. "Im on highway 267 with what looks like temple entrance with red flags and dam on my left". Not easiest thing for taxi. After a while I cut off phone thinking what to do. Hitchhike? Or try to get some help for location? I tried stopping some cars but first 2 didn't stop. Next came motorbike though who did stop and told me name of the place this road was taking to. With that I called the taxi again and now I got myself a taxi coming on my way.

So taxi came and drove me to the lodging. Driver gave me bottle of water that I swallowed right away. We talked a lot on the way and on the end at the gate of lodging I ripped open the ice bag and threw now melted contents over my head which felt oh so good. I was so sweaty anyway clothes were "who cares".

Bath, lots and lots of cold drinks. Started to feel better. I don't think doctors would have classified that as a heatstroke YET but I was definitely fast on my way toward that. Don't think I have been on this dangerous situation after the case where I dipped into icy lake when I was 1-2 years old and falling asleep while driving. Thankfully I wasn't too stubborn to ignore what the body was telling me.

Luckily this should be worst of what I should face on this trip. From now on daily distances get shorter, more temples per day and konbinis to rest and trains if need be. No long walks in asphalt highways. Oh and on the sea side rather than surrounded by mountains.

Walked 26,06km, total 226,62km.