19th Nov – Day 13, Temple 63 (Kichijouji), Temple 64 (Maegamiji)

My alarm was supposed to be 5am, but I woke up at 6:30am. Getting slacker in the morning. Packed up and looked for a vending machine to have my breakfast with a hot coffee. Sometimes, the vending machines had promotion on certain drinks. Mine this morning didn’t have any. On the way, I met Shinya-san. He was on his way to Temple 64. He mentioned he would walk 30km today. We wished each other best of luck.

The first stop was Temple 63 which was just 800m away from my camp. After that, I had to go back to the same path where I set up my tent. Then, I realized I had forgotten to take a picture of it yet again! During the evening, it was always dark after the tent was set up. In the morning, I had always been “kelam kabut” (Malay for busy in a clumsy way). Looks like I needed to tent more often.

On the way to Temple 64, I saw a house with Yumi-san surname. Usually the first hour of the day was tougher. Perhaps, still sleepy and the shoulder had not adjusted well yet. Or perhaps, I had forgotten to warm up today. Temple 64 had three masters to write the temple stamps! Perhaps, it was a popular temple. Also seemed to notice many of the temples were renovating too. I just beat the crowd and managed to get my stamp before a big group of tour henro came in. Did my warm up and left. It was still 9:40am.

Temple 65 was more 40km away. My plan was to cover 20km today and camp at a good site with a convenient store and restaurants nearby. The rest of the day would be walking with cars along the road. Saw a restaurant with 290yen only meal, but it was just 10 plus and too early for my lunch! I was grateful that it had been great weather so far. By 10, it would get sunny and hot most of the time.

Today I had decided to go back to Shanghai after my pilgrimage in order to have some great beers and treat my legs well with a good massage! I figured out that walking with a big baggage was all about adjusting yourself to a comfortable position. Once the position got uneasy, it was time to shift to another position. And by the time you had run out of positions, it was time to take a break and the cycle continued again after the short rest!

At around 11 plus, I passed by a ramen shop and stopped to have my lunch. So glad I did. It was a really big bowl and the soup was very different from the ramen I had so far. It was one of the oiliest I had, with lots and lots of shredded spring onions and celery. And the pork slice was the best. It was so soft that I thought it was beef. I saw they had even bigger bowl!!

After lunch, I noticed I had covered quite a distance indeed, since I was walking pretty fast. I noticed a free lodging recommended by Hajime-san and drawn on my map. I called them up and it was really a free lodging. I told the owner that I would only reached around 5:30pm because I was some 20km away! Knowing that I would have a sheltered lodging pumped me up! For the next two hours, I did not lift my head up much. Just concentrating on the road and the weight of my baggage and kept walking! Then, suddenly I started to hear some annoying sound every time I walked, but couldn’t work out where it came from! I thought it was caused by my right leg.

After 2 hours, I was pretty tired and didn’t feel like walking at all. There were still 2.5 hours to go. I stopped by a convenient store to pee and filled up my water bottle. I was struggling for the next stop to have my tea break. When I was almost there, I saw a henro sign and followed that for some distance, only to find out it was going to a different path that didn’t pass by the town where my lodging was! In fact, it was a guy in a car who stopped me from going further! Somehow he knew I was going the wrong way!! And so, I had to go back to where I came from and wasted half an hour or so of my energy! But on the way back, I saw a huge monkey crossing the field from one side to the other side of the jungle!

Once I was on the right way, I stopped to have my bread when I spotted a vending machine to get a hot coffee. As I was slotting in the coins, I noticed this machine had a promotion for half price!! I pressed the button so fast, like I was worried it will disappear! Then, I saw another same button up there and wondered why they needed another one when there were already two at the bottom. When I bended down to pick up my drink, I understood the purpose of the top button immediately.

After my break, it was 4:10pm and got cold already. The cold coffee made me colder. Still another one and half hours to go. Every step I walked was like having thousands of needles poking at the bottom of my feet! Finally, almost exactly at 5:30pm, I reached the train station where the lodging was supposed to be! I made the call again but alas!! The owner told me it was a different train station some 5km away!! Sigh! “Didn’t your mother teach you to ask and confirm first?”! Surprisingly, I wasn’t too disappointed instead. I had been used to camping by now! I was trying to get my bag in the station. There was a group of 16-years-old students in their uniform looking curiously at me with a huge backpack. One of them was teasing me. She even poked my face with her finger as well! I was harassed!! Then, another seemed to the leader among them was trying to tell me something. I asked her if there was any coin laundry nearby. She sat down next to me to try and draw a map. The girl who poked me teased her for sitting too close. She quieted her and continued drawing as she explained. Not satisfied with her map, she tried to draw another one, but another student told her that it was on her way home and she could bring me there instead. Then, I asked if there was any bath house around. The leader said it was just a few train stations away. And, the girl, who poked me, eagerly suggested if I needed her to bring me there. She said “together”?! Of course I declined professionally and thanked them very much. The train soon came and they dispersed. The girl who brought me to the coin laundry was Naomi-chan. She was pushing her bike to guide me there. She said school was tough and they usually started at 8:20am to around 3pm. It was just a 10minutes walk. I thanked her very much.

At the laundry, there were power sockets and free wifi access too!! I realized I had only a 5000yen note and had to get it changed from a nearby convenient store. I got my dinner and breakfast. I thought maybe I could even spend the night there! After my meal, I was trying to clean up myself and changed to a new set of clothing so that I could wash those I was wearing as well. Soon when I was just about to start my laundry, a man came in and showed me a badge! He was a policeman!! I was stunned. He said I could not take my bath here. It was for laundry only. I guessed the CCTV captured me changing my clothes. I apologized but he still asked for my passport and copied down my name and date of birth and wrote “Singapore” in Japanese. Then, he refrained me from using the power plug too. And, he observed me all the way to make sure I was really doing my laundry. Then, he cautioned me that I must leave after the laundry, and could not sleep there. He left shortly but came back like 10minutes later to make sure I didn’t use the power plug! So, I obediently waited there for 50minutes, still feeling stunned and wondering where I should go later. I supposed I could not camp today, since I mentioned camping and he warned that it was not allowed in the area! When I was done with the laundry, I was worried the policeman will follow me to make sure I had a lodging. Luckily he didn’t. I went to make a couple of calls for accommodation, but one was full and the other no answer. I passed by a lodging but it was too expensive. So, I went to the temple and slept on the bench at the hut around 10pm, still feeling stunned!

Today, the laundry was really expensive at 900yen! Perhaps, it came with wifi and a special visit from the Police Task Force! I covered 31.8km, thanks to the “somewhere-else-free-lodging”.