27th Nov – Day 21, Temple 80 to 82 (Kokubunji, Shiromineji, Negoroji), Bangai 19 (Kouzaiji), Temple 83 (Ichinomiyaji)

It was a difficult morning. Wearing the thick sock was tough. I should had cleaned up the thinner ones and let them dry in the heater room last night. Waking up was tougher. The walk was toughest! I guessed that was because I was in a rush. Today, I had a long day ahead and really wanted to get to Temple 83 where there was supposed to have a free lodging. I needed to cover 5 temples!

The short 45minutes walk to Temple 80 was already a challenge for the day. Just about to reach, a man who was walking really fast behind, overtook me and asked if I was walking the trail. He turned back later and gave me 500yen as “o-settai”!! Money was the best o-settai =] I thanked him very much and gave him a name slip.

I spent a long time at Temple 80 to get some charms for my sister. She was born in the year 1980, and hence I thought of getting her something at Temple 80. There were many things sold at Temple 80! I only managed to get a simple Kobo Daishi (Kukai) figure at Temple 48 and Temple 49 for my parents respectively.

I realized it was getting late. I quickly moved on but the pace wasn’t just right. I struggled. And soon, it was going uphill, I struggled more! And at 9am, the sound from my stomach was so loud that I thought I heard the echo as well! I had no choice but to take a break and eat the left over sushi last night. I decided not to rush anymore and let it flowed naturally. As I sat down, a bird flew pass right in front of me. Then, I saw two more getting very close. As I was wondering, I saw an old woman in front of me with her palm held in front for the birds to pick up some nuts (kuaci). She passed me some to try. It was really fun. The birds were not afraid and they sometimes stayed a little longer on your palm. I took heaps of pictures. When my nuts were gone, I tried with sushi rice, but they knew it was expired!

I moved on and met the old woman up ahead again. She gave me various kinds of snacks and I returned her a name slip. She told me if she could send me a New Year card with that address!! (On the name slip, there was my name, address and the date. If the name slip was for the temple, my wishes were written there as well. By now, I could write my address and wishes in reverse order!). Anyway, I was surprised but thanked her very much. I realized when you tend to rush, there always seems to be not enough time. But, when you take your time and go slow, things would move on very smoothly!! Soon, I was almost at the temple.

Temple 81 was big. There were many people when I reached. The temple had speakers around the area playing the religious music. I noticed all those in full suit were all white. Even their shoes were white or light colour. But yet, I was all in black or dark colour. Saw a woman with the housewife look having a huge digital camera with her. Everyone could really take good pictures now with the advanced of technology. Then, her husband came with two huge one hanging around his neck!!

After my wonderfully heavenly tea break, I continued to Temple 82. On the way, I met an old lady, Mino-san. She was 64-years-old and just walked from her home to see the fallen leaves at Temple 82. She invited to walk together, which was really good. I was pushed to keep up the pace and the chat made the trip to Temple 82 much faster. She explained to me those old statues along the trail were used thousands of years ago to tell the remaining distance to the destination. Many of these pilgrimage paths along the jungle were actually walked by many for thousands of years! I couldn’t imagine myself being one of the lucky one to walk on them as well.

Temple 82 was very beautiful indeed. Mino-san was giving me a tour as she explained the 3 different colours of leaves, namely yellow, green and red, which made the scenery very majestic! There was one particular tree with really exceptionally red leaves!! Many were posing to take pictures with it.

Soon, Mino-san and I went the separate way. She was heading home and I continued my journey to Bangai 19. On the way, I heard gun shots again. Probably the area had a hunting ground. Then, I lost my way for 10 minutes. The henro signs were always pointing in an ambiguous way. The Americans reckons my thought too. I thought it would be good too if there was a sign that turn you back if you took the wrong path. Luckily there were no more surprises for this Bangai and I reached 6min later than scheduled. I was too eager to get it done and forgotten to purify myself first before the prayer at the Main Hall! I had my prayers in fast forward speed to overtake a big group of tour henro for the stamp. Had my heavenly bread again for tea break and rushed off again at 1:50pm.

Met a street walker and she told me the Udon restaurant next to us was very famous. In fact, the most famous in whole Japan!!! But, I just had my tea break and was rushing to Temple 83. I walked so fast that I could feel the breeze! And so, I had the longest continuous walk of 9.3km without a stop. Made it to the temple at 4:40pm, and noticed there were many late comers too. Some was even still praying after 5pm!

Sadly, there was no free sheltered lodging again! So, I went over to the park and it was pretty isolated and huge. Many great spots for my tent. Set it up just next to the toilet, left “Ah Wing” inside the handicapped and went for dinner at a restaurant I passed by earlier. Thought it was an Udon restaurant, but it was not bad too. Had a set meal for 550yen with vegetable, miso soup, a piece of fried soba fish, a slice of egg and a big bowl of rice. Ordered another big plate of some kind of fish which was huge for 380yen only. Then, I saw fried oyster! But I already ordered too much. After the dinner, I hung around to plan for my trip. Often, I would turn my head back to look at the plate of oyster for a very long time. Eventually, when I decided to get it for supper, it wasn’t there anymore. So, I just took a plate of fried chicken and paid for it. I felt like buying the left-over sugar cane (a Chinese phrase to mean getting something else when you can’t get what you originally wanted). Walked to my favourite shopping centre to get my breakfast and went back to camp. Updated the blog for a while but got very tired and wanted to sleep at 10pm. In the end, walked 400m to get a hot coffee, read some saved emails on my iPhone and ended up in bed at 11pm. The rain woke me up at 3:30am! It got colder whenever it rained.

Today, I had another 31.5km in the pocket.