23rd Nov – Day 17, Temple 68 to 71 (Jennein, Kan-onji, Motoyamaji, Iyadaniji)

By now, I could gauge my timing better. Set up tent, 20minutes. Pack tent, 30min, Clean up 10min. My New Balance caught a cold yesterday and my Nikko was taking over. But it wasn’t good. My little toes hurt badly. I wanted to find a coin laundry so badly today, but there wasn’t any until somewhere around Temple 75.

Temple 68 and 69 were together in the same place, about 5km away. I met Hajime-san again there, but he was on his way off when I just arrived. Today, I noticed some did the praying by singing! Some blew the pipe. The sound created by the pipe was the same sound that I heard on Day 7 (13th Nov) on my way to Temple 46 in the jungle.

At Temple 70, I met Hajime san again. He was going very slowly now, he said, because he was about to finish his pilgrimage soon in 5 to 6 days! He invited me to walk together. I had my tea break there and bought a cold coffee again from the vending machine!! Luckily the shop owner just next to it was kind enough for me to change it to a hot one instead!

So, Hajime-san and I walked to Temple 71 together which was about 11km away. Around lunch time, he said his friends were coming to have lunch with him and asked me to join along. He introduced his two pretty young girl friends, Tama-chan and Ai-chan! They drove all the way for an hour just to meet him for lunch! I bet Hajime-san is a famous guy! He was like a superstar in the Udon restaurant that we went to. The girls were taking pictures of him like they met their idol! =] After an hour of wonderful Udon meal, the ladies sent us back to the exact spot where they picked us up.

We moved on pretty slow for the rest of the day and stopped often. Once at the Lawson to get my breakfast and once at a 100 yen shop to get my rope (for the tent), needle and string (for my pant) and extra battery (for my headlight) and also a hair spray. The last one was initially not in the original list of items that I wanted. But for only 105yen, the luxury was well worth having!

Hajime-san and I chatted a lot. About food, music and what we usually do after work. I told him Japan has a lot of hair salons and beauty centers! He said Kagawa Prefecture has a lot of “ike” (lake)! And of course, he had told me before that Udon was very famous here too. There seemed to be one Udon restaurant after every 500m we walked!

My poor little toes! I should had probably got one shoe size bigger or not this Nikko altogether! After struggling for the last few steps, we finally reached the temple around 3:30pm. And only then did I realize I had a casualty again in my platoon! My backpack cover has slipped off somehow!! Sigh! I thought I could locate it on my way down but there was no luck! I reckoned by the time I finished my pilgrimage (if I really could), I might be naked!

On the way, we thought we saw a free lodging but it was locked. Hajime-san volunteered to have a look at the place again while I took care of the baggage. Looked like today was a camping day! There was an onsen just besides the park. It was 1050yen per person. We considered for just a while and went in. Had a great sauna and hot bath! During dinner, I couldn’t resist the beer that Hajime-san ordered and had one myself too!

After that, we relaxed at the rest area. I was pretty sleepy already, but did my name slips and updated my blog with one eye closed. If only we could sleep here till the next morning! The couch was so comfortable! I dozed off while switching off my laptop. When I was awake at 10 plus, Hajime-san said he was going for his 2nd round of onsen! I told him I would skip and continue my dream.

Just when I was in my deep sleep, the attendant woke me up at 11:30pm. It was half an hour before they were closed. We packed up and went to set up out tent outside a sheltered area. Hajime-san’s tent was really cool! He was done in minutes! He said his tent was 60,000yen! High-end made in Japan and 1.2kg only!! I was struggling with mine since it was the first time I set up on hard ground. Need to use the rope to hold the tent.

I had my supper although I wasn’t hungry. Just wanted to eat something. I bought a cold coffee yet again! Got to get another one and kept the cold one. After I was satisfied munching, I went to bed at 1am but could not fell asleep until late!

Tomorrow I planned for 12.3km only because I needed to clean my New Balance badly! I couldn’t walk with my Nikko for long!

Today, I met my 20km target with only an extra of 1.2km.