22nd Dec – Day 46, Shimanto Town (Aguri Kubokawa Michi-no-eki)

Woke up around 6 and had a great breakfast before leaving at 7:24am. I love my instant Nescafe coffee! I started off the day passing through several tunnels. There were many cars and going very fast just besides me! Very soon, it was an hour and I reached the Yakezaka-touge Pass and my nightmare already began before it was dark! First, there was supposed to be just a 0.5km cut-through, but indeed, walking henro path could be closed as well. Signs were indicating to detour to the long way, and it became a 3km walk instead! Then, I was lost and couldn’t locate myself on the map, but still there were many henro signs to follow, but the uphill direction was just the opposite of my compass reading and accordingly to the map! I had only one option that was to follow the signs. It was a very long hike until I finally reached 305m a.s.l., which I initially thought it was only going to be around 200m plus. The downhill continued to bring me to the main road, and another 4km or so I reached a small town, Tosa-Kure.

It was really a demoralizing day indeed. I was so tired after just 3 hours of walk today, and was cynical again if I could finish the remaining days! I just wished I could end the pilgrimage as soon as possible. For the first time, my knees were really tired. I stopped for a drink and checked some messages! Then, I saw a supermarket shortly, calculated the time I needed for the rest of the day, and stopped again for early lunch. I had a nice chicken and fish skewers with my favourite rice!

I moved on again and needed some energy drink to boost my strength! The sun was bright and hot by now. I decided to take out my shoes and hoped to dry it along the way, but it didn’t really work in the end. Only the surface was dried up slightly. After around 5km of walk, I reached the final 1km stretch of constant climbing at the Nanako-touge Pass!! I almost had to climb literally!! Took me almost an hour for the short path, and bang my head on the tree branches along the way! And I thought I had chosen the easier route, since the other option I saw on the map was going through hikes! I learned that I should avoid any route with “Pass” today!

Back to the main Route 56, I saw a ramen shop and stopped again! I was just too tired and didn’t want to bother about today’s schedule anymore. I just felt like stopping any time to eat whenever I wanted to! I didn’t want to have another set of bread again, since I had been eating it almost every meal!

When I moved on again, I saw the road sign of a town that I saw on day one! I couldn’t believe I had only about 10 days left for this pilgrimage! I was very close already!! But the remaining days seemed much tougher, just like the remaining hours of the each pilgrimage day!

Just half an hour later, I stopped again at a convenient store for a snack! Had been pretty alien to “o-settai” these days, and the shop attendant gave me a bottle of green tea! Finally, at 4pm I came to the supermarket-cum-restaurant where I was planning to spend the night. There even had free hot shower!! But, the toilet was only opened until 8pm. The shop attendant suggested the Michi-no-eki further up was a better choice, since there was a convenient store just opposite as well! My guide wasn’t updated with this information, and I already bought my milk and yogurt earlier! I asked if there was coin laundry, and he mentioned only near Temple 37. And so, I walked another half an hour to the Michi-no-eki, left my stuff in the handicapped toilet, and came back again for my shower and dinner. I thought of going to the coin laundry, but it would be too rush to come back for my shower by 8pm.

It was really wonderful to have free hot shower for as long as you wanted! After my wonderful rice meal (I had been enjoying my rice more than the main dishes these days. I mean, the pork that I had today was really delicious too, but I just loved my rice more!), I spent the rest of the time there planning for my next 4 days journey to Temple 38! And yes, it would take 4 days to go there comfortably, or 3 days which I thought of initially, but I would have to do close to 30km again. The distance between these two temples was the longest among all, at 81.6km! And the map did look very confusing!! When they were closing at 8pm, I walked back to the Michi-no-eki. The same 30 minutes seemed much shorter on the way back. While in deep thought, suddenly a train flew passed me in great speed! The track was just beside the walking path. It was like crashing towards me! Then, a guy suddenly appeared very close to me! He was kind of walking side way and cut through me very quickly!

I passed by the convenient store to warm myself up and got some junk food. Thought of asking the shop attendant to let me sit there, but there wasn’t really any place to sit at all. Backed to the Michi-no-eki and updated my blog outside at a bench. It was still ok initially but it got colder by 9pm. I stopped and went to set up my tent. Just when I was about to begin, a police car drove passed! My ground sheet was pretty obvious from the roadside, and then it turned in to the Michi-no-eki! I thought “Die!” The police must have seen me carrying my tent and came over to warn me! I quickly sat down on the bench and then pretended to get a drink from the vending machine! I did not turn back until a couple of minutes later. And thankfully, the patrol had already gone! I quickly got it done and went inside my tent around 10:45pm, because it was very cold outside!

Today was one of the toughest days I had at 30.3km.