28th Nov – Day 22, Temple 84 to 85 (Yashimaji, Yakuriji)

I wasted the green tea ice cream I bought at Marunaka last night =[ It was too nice to resist then, but was too cold to eat it. This morning, it melted and gave me more work to clean up. Woke up around 6:10am and was only ready by 8:15am. My memory wasn't that bad actually, but I had been forgetting things. Forgotten to take the photo of my tent again. Forgotten to throw some rubbish on my pouch.

Still felt very sleepy. Today, I managed to walk with my eyes closed for 4seconds. An improvement of 2 seconds from previous attempt! Kids, do not try this at home. The stun was done by professional after years of blood and sweat training.

After an hour and time for a break, I reached the map again and noticed I had taken the long way instead! There were 2 paths to Temple 84. The long way was around 4km more. I decided to go back to the original path I planned but I had actually overshot the turn earlier when I was on the longer path. So, I ended up following the shorter path but longer than the longer path! If you know what I meant!

I had reached the Takamatsu City. It was the biggest city in Kagawa Prefecture. There were many distractions. Shops, restaurants, girls and Mc Donald! Before I could join back to the henro path yet, I took another detour just to go to the fast food restaurant. It was a messy day! My route was messy. My Big Mac was messy. And I play like Messi! Nah! Just kidding. Finally I had my long craving Mc Donald. Not that I was a fan, but just wanted to have some junk food. In the end, spent a long time there planning my next few days trip. I was thinking maybe I could go slow and settled with just Temple 84 so that I could hang around this big city.

Left after around 40minutes and continued the long walk. I saw the famous Udon shop again that the street walker told me yesterday. I recognized the Kanji this time because it was the one recommended in the guide book too, called Sanuki Udon. After spending 5.5 hours I had finally reached the first temple of the day. At the bottom, I called Hajime-san to confirm our dinner appointment. Told him I would call again around 4:30pm to see where we could meet. Then it was a tough half an hour hike up. It was a short distance but very steep up to 300m above sea level. I rested many times. Around 2pm, I reached eventually, almost suffocated. Today was cold and windy. I had my bandana on the whole time until I started the hike. Up at the temple, it was windier! I had my tea break and left around 2:45pm after getting the direction from the temple staff. Another staff gave me 2 nice chocolate bars.

I followed the signs until I reached a junction. Both ways didn’t seem right. I took the left and reached a dead end. Went back to take the right but I ended up back to the temple entrance where I initially came from. I went all the way back to the last henro sign and noticed I had missed one along the way. It went off the walking track and cut into the jungle. Lost for 20minutes, I wondered if I had enough time to reach Temple 85. The downhill was one of the toughest I had so far. Very stony and steep. My toe almost broke!!

Finally I reached the flat road at 3:30pm. There were still around 2.4km before another slope up to Temple 85. I sped up so much that my stomach felt uncomfortable. Soon the hike started and I was slowed down to turtle pace! It was 4:16pm already! I began to panic and worried if I could make it at all. Just then, a lady stopped me and gave me some sweets as “o-settai”, I thanked her wanted to give her a name slip but she said it was ok. Soon, when she knew I was from Singapore, she asked for one. I was struggling to locate my pen, just when I was in a rush. But, I could still patiently manage to find it after pulling out almost all my other stuffs from the pouch. I wrote her a new one, since I did not have any ready one for the day anymore. She thanked me and I quickly continued my walk.

I wished I had 3 lungs like Park Ji Sung. (A Manchester United Korean player with the nickname, “3 lungs Park”). There was still no sign of reaching soon yet! I almost wanted to give up and leave "Ah Wing" behind so that I could run to the temple. Soon I saw the sign that said 1.2km away and it was 4:24pm. I got my confidence back. Usually 1km would take 15minutes on flat road. Hike may doubled it. And so I would still be 2min on time before they closed at 5pm! I just continued steps by steps, breathing in deep on every step. At 4:40pm, I saw the front gate and the sign of relief was unexplainable!!

Completed my praying by 5pm and gave a call to Hajimen-san immediately. My phone card didn't work. I slotted in all the 10yen that I had and managed to talk to him for a while. He had left me a message actually that he had completed his pilgrimage today and having a party tonight. So he could not meet me and suggested tomorrow. I got cut off before I could congratulate him and wish him to have fun. I had no more coins to call back. I stopped for another tea break. It was very windy and cold. I quickly moved on. At 5:30pm, it was already dark. The street was dark and empty but at least I knew I was not in a jungle and I could see the lights from the city every now and then. Then, I saw something white in the middle of the road. Oh! It was just the marking arrow. The walk was relaxing. I could even see all the henro signs along the way! I reached the train station earlier than expected after 40minutes. And my “hotel” was just 5 minutes walk away. I found my “room” and even a “study table”. I parked my bag and went to check out the convenient store nearby, but it wasn’t around anymore. And so, I quickly went back to a restaurant I passed by just next to the park (my hotel) to have my dinner before it closed. It turned out to be the most satisfying meal that I had! The serving was so huge for 500yen and the fried Udon was sooo delicious. I almost couldn’t finish it! I wanted to the order another Okonomi yaki (Japanese pizza) but I couldn’t put in anymore stuff into my mouth. It seemed to be really nice and definitely the famous dish in the shop because every tables were having it!! Sad that I had to miss it! The owner was nice to let me stay as long as I wanted because it was really cold outside tonight. I left eventually after an hour and went back to the bench next to the vending machine (my study room) to charge my phone and watch and type my blog. The best thing was having free wifi too!!!

I stopped to clean up and checked out the bigger bench (my room). They were not well sheltered, and too heavy to carry elsewhere. So, I had to move those smaller benches to the fully shelter area and joined them together. My legs were long! Spread out my ground sheet to dry it as well. And the bonus was having a rare milk vending machine around!! I could have cereal for my supper and heavier breakfast tomorrow!! But I didn’t have my supper. I guessed my fried Udon was still inside the stomach. It was very very cold and I finally went to bed at 12am.

Today, I had reduced 23.5km from my total trail distance.