12th Dec – Day 36, Bangai 4 (Saba-dashi)

I had been sleeping 9 hours for the past few days! Woke up at 6:30am, and started walking around 7:56am. Guillaume left earlier and we planned to meet at Bangai 4 later.

Today was basically walking along Route 55 all the way to my destination. In fact, I would be walking along Route 55 for the next few days! Reminded me of the Princess Highway that linked Melbourne and Sydney in Australia! I kind of like walking on such days because I didn’t have to think and look out for signs much! Just walk!

I passed by Temple 23 again and the Michi-no-eki rest area. I had not done my “business” today but noticed there were many toilets along the way in the guide. So, I stopped for a hot coffee and it pumped me up! I caught the grip of my baggage immediately and managed to walk smoothly after that!

It was a very cooling day to start off with. My water bottle strip was torn on my way down from Temple 22. I had to tie it with my string and glad it worked well. I could even drink from my water bottle easier now as I walked. The path along Route 55 was very well put up for walking and cycling henro. Some of the tunnels had even fences around, and there were many designated walking path. Somewhere along the way to Bangai 3, I walked passed a path which was actually wider than the road for the cars!!

I planned to have my tea break around 10:30am at a train station, since my “business” partner was getting impatient! I held on, but somehow I missed the station after going through a henro path and was quite a distance ahead. I checked the map, and luckily the next convenient store was around 1.5km away. I pushed on, negotiating with my “business” partner all the way! Eventually, “he” couldn’t give in anymore and I was lucky to see an office to ask for the toilet. So pleased that I was allowed to use one and settled the “business” deal! Right after that, I started to eat again. It was around 11am when I sat in front of the vending machine to have my bread. An old lady came to get some drink and I was blocking her way. She bought me a coffee as “o-settai” instead!

After 20 minutes or so, I moved on again. Saw some huge Koi fishes in the river! Crossed a lot of tunnels as well today. Saw one with only 100m in length and thought it was probably the shortest, but ran into another one in a few minutes that beat it by 30m! Then, I heard some strange marching sound and thought where it came from. It was actually my pouch rubbing against my jacket and it was kind of funny and I liked it!

I passed by Mugi, a small town and got an internet access. I stopped for a while to check my messages. I got one from Yumi-chan who recommended me a few lodging and one of them was Funa-no-Sato, exactly where I stayed on Day 32 (8th Dec). It was amazing how instinct works. The place wasn’t my original plan, but I rushed over to it on that day! I was glad I did my pilgrimage during this off-peak period, because it must be really packed with henro during the peak season and made it a headache to plan for accommodation and even to fight for the free lodging! And I was really grateful that the weather had been really good during the day, especially without the rain, to make the walk much easier!

I passed by a nice beach and felt like diving in for a swim! Would probably do that if I was on holiday instead! Along the way, I saw a sign which said “old henro path”, but I thought I better stick to the tunnel on the guide’s map! Around 1, I reached the final section to Bangai 4. There were three henro options presented for me! One was going straight through the tunnel, the other was pointing to the road on the left and the third choice was actually a flag that seemed to tell me, “Bangai 4, this way please!” I went for the flag and it was a good pick indeed. Bangai 4 was probably the easiest among all the unnumbered temples, besides Bangai 8. I reached and saw Guillaume sitting at the bench writing a note for me! He had bad news! The free lodging at Bangai 4 had already stopped operating since end of November. We missed it by a couple of weeks. We called a lodging nearby but it was over our budget. We decided to check out the camping site just 3km away.

Bangai 4 was nice. There was an outdoor area with all the statues of the 88 temples for the pilgrims to walk around them and pray, to imply making the trip to all the temples itself. There was also an indoor viewing hall with each of the 88 as well as the 20 unnumbered temples’ statues and pictures of the temple on display! The statue of the Koya-san was also on display. (Koya-san was a place that pilgrims usually go either before their pilgrimage to pray for safety and success or after their pilgrimage to thank Kobo Daishi for the successful and safe journey) I met the same sweeper whom I saw at Temple 22!! He told me he would need to go to all the temples to sweep the floor!!!

After a few hundred meters, Guillaume was very nice and volunteered to move faster to the camp site to find out the place and offered me to wait at the junction along the henro path. He was very fast indeed. After I had noted this down on my iPhone for my blog later, he was not in my sight of view anymore! I tried to meet him at the camp site, but was unsure at a junction the right of way, and thought of hailing a car to ask for direction. But, my wrong hair day probably made me looked like a crazy beggar and none of the cars stopped! Soon, I saw Guillaume in front and he had more bad news! The camping site had already closed and the staff was suggesting a different location. We called up, but the place was charging 2000yen with, not only no coin shower, but the toilet was also 200m to 300m away!! What kind of camping site was this, we thought!

We went further up and glad to find a toilet! Guillaume volunteered again to survey around for a nice spot to set our tent. We found one just opposite the toilet! We took a rest and saw the huge “Camping is prohibited!” warning sign at the toilet! In fact, camping, other than designated area, was not allowed in Japan, but usually, people around Shikoku would give some sympathy for o-henro-san =]

We cleaned up and then got our tent ready by 5pm. We were having exactly the same tent, Lightent 1! Since we had our meals, we didn’t go to look for dinner! And so, I spent the least today as well, with only 1 temple stamp. After updated my blog, I quickly went into my tent as well. It was already freezing cold, since 5:30pm! I slept at 9pm.

Today, I covered another 21.5km.