I woke up at 4:09am today and set off at 6:15am when it was starting to bright up. Last night was better, but I was still awoken twice at 12:30am and 3am by the cold weather. The day started off with a 4.9km of steady upslope on the road, and then I reached the jungle path where the guide mentioned was closed and not recommended. I couldn’t make up my mind for a couple of minutes. However, I gave it a try in the end since Yumi-chan had walked it through. It was a tough 4.5km hike up. Along the way, I had chocolate, fruit and crackers but none could satisfy my stomach still. So, I had to stop for 15minutes just before I reached the top for some rice cereal. After 3 and a half hour, I finally arrived at the temple, which didn’t look like a temple at all but a residential house instead. I got my stamp and asked if there was any vending machine for my tea break. The staff said no but he later offered me a couple of mandarin oranges and a green tea, stressing on the word “o-settai” and asked if I knew what was “o-settai” as if he was hinting very strongly he wanted a name slip! Of course, I thanked him and passed him one.
After my meal, I quickly moved on since it was pretty cold up at 800m plus above sea level! In order to save time, I took the same path down and back to the Natsuko hut where I spent my night. The journey was 45 minutes faster. I had my cereal and bread for lunch there. At 1:15pm, I promptly start walking again. It was another 3 hours to reach Temple 88. I seldom stopped for long these days. Just for a minute or two, unless I had to eat. On the way, an old lady stopped her car and passed me 1000yen as “o-settai”!! I was very surprised and thanked her very much with a name slip!
Before I get to the temple, I had to go off track slightly to a supermarket to buy my breakfast and some bread for supper and snack. When I was about there, I saw a grocery stall with all that I wanted! So, I saved my trip to the supermarket and completed the last 2km to reach the temple around 4:05pm. Outside the temple was pretty glamour but inside wasn’t as big as some other temples. I bought lots of souvenirs here since it was the last temple and the 88 is a good and lucky number for Chinese!
After that, I walked around and found the place where I could set my tent for the night. There was a toilet and even a shower too (as mentioned in the guide) in the handicapped, but of course it was cold water! I called up the lodging nearby and it was 4500yen! In normal days, I would had ruled it out completely, but I thought of the 1000yen “o-settai” that I had today and probably if I tried to bargain for 500yen lesser, I could still meet the 3000-yen rule! Besides that, the cold wind outside really influenced my decision a lot. I walked over to the lodging and showed the saddest face to an old lady who came out to serve me. But she was pretty persistence and even suggested sleeping out at the same place where I came from! Didn’t want to go back to the chill outside, I broke my rule for the first time and went in to my room at level 2. The old lady said “Sakura Room”. The rooms were all labeled in Japanese Kanji! Luckily I could still remember “梅”!
When I was about to go down for my bath, a middle-aged lady brought in some noodles and sushi rice as “o-settai”! I was so happy and thanked them with a name slip. I gulped the food in minutes and went for my hot bath. The bath area could fit in 2 persons! When I was hugging myself applying the shower cream, I noticed I was only left with bones!! My family wouldn’t be too happy to hear this! After a long shower, I went back to my room and noticed my bed was even prepared! I had my supper and updated my blog. My phone couldn’t detect a wifi access but my laptop could, although the signal was very weak. I managed to upload all the entries and went to bed around 11:30pm.
Today, I overcame the deficit for the last 2 days and did a 30.1km walk!
No comments:
Post a Comment