11th Nov – Day 5, Temple 44 (Daihouji)

My hardest day to wake up so far. Even with the heater, it was still pretty cold inside. Alarm rang at 6am, but too tired to wake up. Set half an hour later to catch more sleep. Fixed my blisters and hence took a longer time to get ready today. But, as advised in the guide I read, the first rule of the pilgrimage was not to rush yourself. This was not an easy rule since I’m a person who likes to rush things up. I always had to keep reminding myself every morning, during the walk and many other times.

While having breakfast, my devil and angel were having an argument. The devil was complaining that I should save the small pieces of tape for my feet and use the big one I had for my hip. But the big one had already been well kept inside my backpack, and so he suggested to fix my hip in the evening instead. He was lazy too in fact. The angel made a big fuss and condemned that how could we sacrifice safety and injury over a small amount of money on the tape! They compromised to fix the hip immediately using the small tape instead.

It was a very cold morning. My hands were numb from the cold water. Managed to finish off my dry and expired-for-a-day donuts! The coffee I bought at the same vending machine was bigger cup for 90yen, but today, I selected a 100yen coffee and yet the portion was smaller!

Keeping rule one in mind all the time, I started my trail at around 8:30am. It was back to the Route 380 highway again, for the next 4.8km. I started to daydream. About meeting Vivian Hsu at one of the temple! She was also doing her pilgrimage in the comfort of her car. She saw me and gave me a signature and a good luck message!!

I woke up again and the next path was a tough 0.5km uphill climb!! Then, I passed through a short tunnel and back to another 4km of highway trail. Met the 10th phone that didn’t work. Just like yesterday, the journey had been so smooth like it had applied the Shiseido’s SKII! Only a short hiccup at a junction. But, the right track was confirmed pretty soon with a henro sign after I had taken a few many steps. It seemed like a game to test your common sense. Once you had decided which route, you will find out your answer later when you see the henro sign. But if you don’t, you could be wrong, or your answer might not be revealed so soon yet! Personally, I thought some of the signs were overkill at certain path, but some route were lack of it, especially at the junctions. Once, I saw two signs separated by just 20 steps away. And other times, I didn’t notice any at the junctions or after a long walk on a certain path.

Met an old man who shook my hand and wished me luck. Back in the jungle again shortly for a 1.2km hike up. Suddenly, I heard a tri-tone on my phone. Wifi in a jungle?! Oh no, just an SMS from Docomo! During the walk, I realized my left side was weaker. My left shoulder got tired sooner, my left hip had bruises and my left feet were all blistered as well. Actually, my feet was ok walking on the ground, but it hurts when walking too long on the “car-moving” (what’s that term?) road. Soon, I started to decend again. It was actually tougher. Although I didn’t feel much discomfort on my baggage, the toes and knees actually hurt a lot. During the last part of the journey, I almost took the wrong way. Luckily, the path I chosen didn’t look very walkable! My common sense worked!!

Finally at 1:30pm, I reached the town. Quickly stop at the nearest Udon restaurant as shown on the map. This shop allowed you to select the ingredient you wanted. I thought just udon must be cheap. So, I picked a potato (50yen) that I thought was an egg plant. A fish (80yen) that I thought was a potato. And a plate of fried chicken for 200yen. But I was slightly shocked to see the total as 680yen. The aunty earlier kept pouring bowl and bowl of udon into a sift. I couldn’t concentrate on her action and what she said at the same time, until she eventually stopped and said “mo?” (More?) Oh, I gave a stop sign immediately. Don’t know how many bowls she had poured in, but one bowl lesser would be just nice and not too much I supposed. While having my meal, I noticed a big menu that said udon for 350yen! I had misjudged the aunty wrongly. This is Japan, kid! Not the countries you came from! (Please note that plural were used to be impartial) I was not sure if it was me or mere human nature. The moment I knew that the udon was all you can eat, I even managed to finish up the whole bowl of soup as well! My previous claim suddenly became not valid anymore!

I was so full that I could hardly walk. Along the way, I stopped by one of the lodging I planned to call. They said 3500yen without food. I thought this could be my last resort, if I couldn’t find the free accommodation. I walked to look for public phone but just couldn’t find one. Then I reached the town office and thought of giving it a try. But no luck, the staff was basically just using internet to search for accommodation. She found one without food at 4000yen and thought it was the cheapest, but I didn’t want to mention about the 3500yen I just asked next few shops away. She used the online translator to communicate with me when I couldn’t get what she meant. Anyway, she was really nice and tried to make a few calls for me and even suggested sleeping out inside a bus stop outside a building. But the place was 3km away! She said it took only 10minutes by car. I thanked her very much for the effort and left. Saw a phone just outside the town council but thought I would make her feel better by calling somewhere else instead. And that was a bad move! I couldn’t find any phone at all! So, I decided to go to the Temple 44 and check out there. On the way, I met a young Japanese guy who was walking the trail as well. He was pretty cool. He started from Kochi city and took him 10days to reach Temple 44. When I asked where he was staying for the night, he just smiled and pointed at the side of the road! He was amazing! I asked “samui desuka” (Is it cold?) Actually I wanted to ask “samukunai desuka” (Not cold?) But he understood my question and said he had a very good sleeping bag.

I reached the Temple 44 shortly, prayed and got my stamp. Then, I asked the temple in charge on lodging, but no luck. I met the young Japanese guy again. He actually was not in the henro attire. He didn’t come to pray or get any stamp as well. I heard a lot of young Japanese do that, just for the fun and excitement and challenge of walking the trail! Finally, found a vending machine with the Pocari sweet drink that Yap’s mentioned. Bought one and left.

I almost had the urge to move on to the next town 2.6km away, but the first rule reminded me again. Went back to town and walked further up to look for a public phone but still couldn’t find one! Probably it wasn’t work too, if I did! Then I reached the last convenience store. I asked the shop owner if there was a public phone around. He was very nice and could speak perfect English! He borrowed his line phone for me to make a number of calls. First, 4300yen. Out. The free lodging I planned to stay, no answer. One more to go, but the guy on the other line couldn’t understand me. I asked the shop owner for help and he managed to find out 4000yen without food as well. I thanked him very very much and left to look for the park. I decided to save 3500yen and go for my second attempt on camping!

Took a long walk to the park. On the way, saw a group of school kids and asked them for direction. They were all in yellow cap. Forgotten to take a picture. At the park, found a spot but the ground was too hard to stuck in my pegs. Decided on the slightly slanted patch, next to a running track. My skill had improved much and by 20minutes or so, I managed to set up a decent tent, just in time before it got dark! As I walked to the convenient store, I noticed the lights were suddenly all turned on and my tent was pretty visible at the corner! I was worried someone might see it, although it was empty. I left my backpack inside the toilet. I had no other options but to make my trip a quick one.

Another long 20 minutes walk to the same store. Bought 1657yen of stuffs, mainly food and a luxury item, deodorant! =] Since I could heat up my dinner, I had it first before I came back to my tent. So that I don’t have to eat cold meal again! So, I sat on the steps outside a pachinko building enjoying my beef rice. It was a bargain at 398yen!

Came back in an hour time, and found my 11th faulty public phone. Did I miss out something? It couldn’t be this bad, I thought. Couldn’t call home yet. I let out a sigh. When I was near the running track, I noticed there was some training going on. Three runners were practicing their loop. I tried to update my blog but the power plug was too far from the only light source I had around. Soon, my laptop battery went low. I was surprised there were many cars passing by the park area! Perhaps, there was some residential area somewhere inside. So, I went to clean up and it was already 9:30pm. Since I was too tired, I decided to sleep early so that I could wake up earlier to pack up my tent!

Today, I walked about 18km.