6th Dec – Day 30, Temple 12 (Shousanji)

The shochu seemed to work better today and a third sip would probably do the job and kept me warm till the next morning.

Today was the big day to conquer one of the toughest route of the pilgrimage! A 12.9km continuous uphill and downhill to Temple 12! Would I be able to make it safely to the lodging? Or would I be caught in the dark inside the jungle?! Read on to find out! =]

I woke up around 4 plus in a cold morning. It was another half an hour walk back to Temple 11 before I could start my way to Temple 12. I bought a hot cocoteen to warm my weapon (my freezing palms). 707 was the auspicious time. I came to the starting point and saw the sign that said “Healthy feet, 6 hours. Normal Feet, 7 hours. Weak Feet, 8 hours”! The first impression was my 2 hours buffer wasn’t that overcautious at all!

Just slightly ahead, there was a woman praying and she passed me a drink as “o-settai”. I hesitated on the name slip because I had it all well kept inside my “oversized” pouch today. However, I stopped in front and thought how hard and time-consuming could it be just to spend a few minutes getting the name slip! I dig it out and went back to pass the lady my slip. She was happy and apologized.

The first 2 hours was great. I managed to see the tail of the Korogashi Dragon and smelled its stinky slime! Managed to grab it’s torn at the back of the tail too! The slope went up to 300m asl (above sea level), then down. Up to 400m, then down and then 500m and down again. At 596m, I saw the dragon’s body! He was trying to run away from me!

My stomach was pretty friendly for the first 4 hours! I guessed it must thanked to my breakfast this morning, which included 2 thick slices of bread with butter and cheese, 2 bananas, a 170g yogurt, 500ml milk and some cereal! But after that, the music started again! I tried my newly bought cereal bars which were really nice. Glad I got 2 boxes of 10 packets! Unfortunately, they only lasted for half an hour. The sound from my stomach was so loud that it got pretty scary. As if there was an alien baby inside it!! My chocolate was just making the sound slightly softer!! And so, I had to stop for an early lunch, but couldn’t find a good spot to land my stuff and have a tidy meal. Half an hour later I was so glad to reach the perfect place. Lunch with Kukai (Kobo Daishi) himself. I meant his statue. It was 10:30am. I had 2 thick slices of bread again on butter and cheese together with 2 mackerel cut into 6 small pieces, 3 for each bread. The “o-settai” drink was soy bean with carrot and tomato! Which I thought was pretty unique! All these were able to silent my stomach until dinner time! Spent about 30minutes there and it started to get really cold once I stopped moving, and the sweat on my body made it worse. After spraying some fertilizer to the nature, I march on to seek for the dragon!

I reached 764m and met the dragon itself! He dashed swiftly to 422m and I gave chase. He then soared again to 700m plus. I caught up, eluding his flames and dodging his sharp claws! But still, I suffered numerous scratches at this final stretch! I saw the stone sign! 11 stones away! After a stressful 10minutes, I was just 3 stones nearer. But, eventually at 729m asl, I got the head of the Korogashi Dragon at Temple 12, and was since known as Benro, the Korogashi Dragon Slayer! Based on a legend, there was really a creature here at Temple 12, Shousanji (Burning Mountain Temple)! The dragon set fire to the entire mountain, and Kukai confined it into a cave, which remains today on the way to the Inner Sanctuary, but of course not the dragon anymore since I had eradicated it! There was also, to my amazement, a swing in the temple!

In a demanding 5 hours and 35minutes (including the half an hour lunch break), I defeated the first Korogashi and was even categorized under the “Healthy Feet”! With 20kg more, I wondered if I could add a “crazy” in front of my title! =] And I thought, it would only be justifiable to break my 3000yen rule for the 2nd time, to stay in a warm place with hot shower!! So, I went to claim my reward at the lodging as soon as I could. On the way down, a postman (or postwoman actually), passed me a couple of oranges as “o-settai”!

I reached the “Nabeiwa” lodging (Nabe in Hokkien is a slang to mean WTF!) in about an hour time. Saw a grocery with instant noodle and since there was hot water, I dropped by to get a couple for my dinner and breakfast tomorrow. Alas, there wasn’t anything much. No milk, no yogurt! I was not sure if the old lady “makan” (literally means “eat” in Malay, but also meant “conned” in slang language) my 50yen, because I went into another shop (just next door) which was not selling food in particular, but the same bowl of instant noodle was exactly 50yen cheaper!! I went back to the first stall to get another bowl but it didn’t seem she made any mistakes.

Came back to my lodging just in time for my hot bath, which started at 3pm. I had it all by myself again, and used two shower hose at the same time. The feeling was like.... ah, nevemind. Think I was the only tenant that night too. After that, I did my laundry for just 250yen, and had my feast inside the room. Did my usual stuff every night and went to bed early at 8:30pm since there was no internet access =[

Today was just a mere 14.5km due to the Korogashi Dragon!