The 88 temples pilgrimage of Shikoku - last day (Day 8)

Today is the day I'm going to head back. But before I think about how to return (as I said, no trains here, and the local buses don't cover a big distance) I try to visit one more temple, no. 26.

The city surrounding temple no. 25 is vivid as it seems to be a more or less important harbor city. All over the place there are fish shops that dry their fish in front of their shop on the street.

I head out of the city passing fields and finally reach the woods again. The last climb... is there a rule that temple have to be always on places that make them uncomfortable to reach? Don't they want people to come there? But I like the path as it's a true hiking path and doesn't lead along a street.

Miwa tree

Rice fields

In the woods again

View from close to the top...

...only a bit to go

The last temple for this trip!

Tea field on my way back

"Everybody you meet is your Great Teacher" (Great Teacher is posthumous title of Kukai, the founder of the buddhist school all those temple belong to.)

Down again, last time through the woods

Having reached the cost, this trip is at it's final point.

I decide to hitchhike again, at least until the next bus comes. Maybe because it's a more vivid city, I don't have success with my selfmade "Kan no Ura or direction of Tokushima" sign, so I take the bus. The bus crosses the city (from my point of view: heading back) but doesn't go much further. I get off at the last stop, far away from my destination. By chance I see another bus stop and curiously, I check it out. "Highway bus to Osaka"... This sounds like a comfortable plan!

Waiting for the bus I find all sorts of animals living in the cliffs. As soon as I'm in the bus, it starts to rain. The first time since I left Tokyo...

Finally civilization again! I take the Shinkansen to Tokyo and am catapulted into the present.

The 88 temples pilgrimage of Shikoku - Day 7

Even though I took the train and walked until late, I did not get close to the next temple at all. The distance between temple no. 23 and temple no. 24 is over 80km - if I continue walking the whole day, I still won't have any chance to reach the temple on this day. So I decide not to walk for hours next to a big street in the middle of nowhere but take the only measure left to advance faster without having a train available. 

But first I had to back to the street, so I walked along the shore and took the next turn toward the road I had been walking on yesterday. What I didn't know that time was, I was on a hiking course, actually a round course. It led one time around a lake, beautiful indeed but not really bringing me closer to my goal.

The shortest circumference with a given area is a circle. If you think of the contrary, your imagination might be quite close to what the lake looked like, so even if there wasn't too much water, there was enough to walk. (I was here for walking, but still it isn't fun when it's in circles. 

the lake

rice field on the way

After being back on track, I reached a nice beach, not sand but pebbles and about 3km long. Here and there were some people who were fishing, but basically it was empty. Did you ever try to walk on pebbles? When every step you take is absorbed by the ground - walk 10m but advance only 5m? So the 3km long beach would have easily felt like 6km, if I hadn't decided to climb the wall that protected the forrest behind the beach from high tides and went back on the paved road... climb because there was no gate close. Looking back I remember the wall was 3m high and my backpack weighed 50kg, but of course my memory might not be that accurate and in reality, it was more.

long long beach

fishermen

I reached the main track again and continued walking. Honestly, I tried to walk it all, but the track was desolate. Only a road, vegetation but no trees that could provide shadow and birds circling above me like vultures above somebody dying of thirst. 

The extend of emptiness of this area: Usually Japan is ALWAYS crowed, and especially when it is the one week where everybody has vacations - this week! 

Shirohama beach - this "city" is quite big compared to what I've seen along the way elsewhere, it even has a hotel.

Finally, not having advanced too quickly the hours I walked until now, I decide to hitchhike. The first car that passes stops and a nice lady takes me with her the few kilometers she has to go in her tiny car. On the way we stop as she insists to buy me something to eat and drink. Lacking convenient stores or other shops, we stop at a vending machine corner with the common huge variety of drinks, but also lots of food - if you have not been in Japan you will never believe what is possible to sell in a vending machine...

At least 65km left, I hitchhike again. This time it takes a while, not the first car stops but maybe one of the first ten cars that passed. 10 cars crossing will take you in Tokyo seconds (unless it's traffic jam again), here it took like 30 minutes.

Again a tiny car but we manage to store all my luggage and myself together with the driver, a woman a bit below my age, her grandma and their dog. We talk about a bit about my trip while they pull out all their food supply to share it with me. We talk about the different areas about Japan, she says she has studied in Kyoto, like me but in a different university. I say I know only one person from her university, she wants to know who and - unbelievable she knows him too! It turns out that, when she was a student, she did karate with Shimizu Ryosuke, who later became Japanese champion and now trains at our dojo in Tokyo.

Time flies and we arrive too quickly at the crossing where I have to head away from the cost again for the next temple, the southmost point of Kochi. Considering I'm just a hitchhiker it was a rather big goodbye, I get more food (for the way) and I'm even allowed to pet the dog. The dog doesn't seem to know that and barks aggressively at the approaching hand, so I decide that this trip might be nice even without petting this dog.

I have to climb another mountain, the serpentines are endless but the temple is worth it.

The next temple is close (6km) and there is still some time. Finally, I arrive there, not willing to take another step. Well, but it doesn't count without climbing that stairs.

Having climbed the stairs, I get rewarded with a beautiful main hall.

 New discovery: A fruit called "Miwa". I also discover that I'm allergic to miwa.

Finally some luxury! This night, no tent, no sleeping back - and - being clean after a bath. I checked into a Ryokan, a Japanese style hotel near the temple.

Also no instant ramen, I visit a restaurant and order as much as I can eat (a lot).

Katsuo tataki - barely grilled bonito filet.

 the habor

Grilled mouth of squids

The 88 temples pilgrimage of Shikoku - Day 6

By chance, we had the same timing and started together on the way to the next temple. It turned out that the next temple, no. 23 - the last temple in the Tokushima prefecture and also the last one for my newly found friends - was still quite far away. So maybe it was good to have some company. The temple was located in a bigger city with some tourism (famous for the sea turtles who come to lay their eggs in the sand here); must have been pretty strange for the tourists to see us coming out of the woods...

The temple itself also was a bit different, it had a pagoda with some extraordinary form and by its position, it looked like it ruled the city below it. And it was the temple that took longest from being nearly there to being finally there - once in the city, first we thought the castle might be the temple (and were lucky that it is as it is located on a hill - extra climb? No thanks, we're already served). Than, after spotting it, it felt like hours to finally reach it on the far end of the city...

On top of the pagoda

We celebrated the successful accomplishment of the journey of my 2 friends with an opulent meal - cold noodles and sashimi in combination with an all you can eat Japanese buffet. Hopefully, they don't have too many pilgrims like us as customers, this would really spoil their business case.

 

Again with the train. I decide to not go until the final stop but to stop by in a city on the line that seems to be a nice place to take a look at. By the way, with final stop I don't mean only for the train, for the railways in general. From there for the next 200km, there are no more trains. And finally, I reach Kochi, the next prefecture. Devil's land (this part of Shikoku is barely inhabited and the temples are spread out very far what makes many pilgrims give up here...).

I follow the coastline through different kinds of woods (trees and bushes, bamboo - all very dense and a bit spooky), I cross lonely beaches with sand or rocks and impressive blue water, I pass small fishing villages.

I hardly don't meet anybody, except for and old pilgrim who looks like he is on the journey since 40 years now. Long white beard, long hair, pushing a sort of wheelbarrow with (apparently) all his belongings. When we meet, is just about to build his shelter for the night (he has a quite modern tent, he must have bought it on the trip or my assumption about the 40 years must be wrong...) so I give him some of my food - as I got several presents I have a surplus of e.g. instant noodles. 

Finally also I find a place to stay, a small forest on the harbor. I don't want to walk back into the village so I stay and have some instant noodles, too. A few meters from me, the fish are jumping out of the water, up to half a meter. And there are other animals too who prefer to remain unseen by me, but I hear them around my tent. I wonder what they are.

Later I find out that there are a lot of apes in this part of the country...