8th Dec – Day 32, Temple 17 to 18 (Idoji, Onzanji)

It was another great night sleep, with thick blanket that kept me warm all night. I woke up at 6:30am, an hour later than I planned. My alarm probably woke up everyone else as well! Found out last night that the other o-henro-san sleeping outside wasn’t very popular at all. He woke up earlier and left hurriedly. I walked over to the convenient store and got my breakfast. The owner gave us two dried prunes each. The fruit was called “Kaki”, and when they were dried up, they were called “Hoshi gaki” instead. I passed my contact to each of my new friends and set off first at 8:20am. Noriko-chan was heading to Koya-san today.

Every morning was routinely tough, although it was just a half an hour walk to Temple 17. After I had finished, I met the couple who just arrived. Temple 18 was 17.7km away, passing through the Tokushima city centre! As I was walking through the city centre, I felt like Tom Hanks in Da Vinci Code, trying to locate the “secret” arrow sign to follow around! Tokushima was a very big city. Once again, I was distracted. Shops, restaurants, girls and Mc Donald!

Around 10:30am, I reached the famous ramen restaurant that the o-henro couple had told me. There were many pictures of local stars hanging around the stall. The staffs were very polite, but I thought the ramen was just so-so. I had better one at Beppu and the shop along the way to Temple 65 on Day 13 (19th Nov). And of course, I did not forget what day was today! It was the 1st month of remembrance for Meiseiji! And a pledge is a pledge! I wasn’t trying to make it so serious, but what point was it to have a pledge if I didn’t put in the effort to keep the promise!? And so, my bowl of ramen was meatless! I hadn’t been thinking about Meiseiji for a long while, until this morning when all the memories flashed back. Throughout my meal, I heard “Shingapu” many times from the staffs there talking among themselves! Well, I had been telling people I came from Singapore. Although I had this idea of switching between Malaysia and Singapore alternatively, just to test the reaction from the local, I seldom did it. You see, my relationship with them was like… One was my past sweetest first love, but I had already “married” to the other and had the responsibility to be a faithful “husband”! As I was about to leave, I met the couple again! =] I sat a while to chat with them, before I head to the bank.

I went to a couple of banks but they didn’t have the facility to change any yen and directed me to the main branch at the heart of the city. And the charges were astoundingly high!! If I would to change it back home, I could get around 6000yen (about $90 Singapore dollar) more!!! Perhaps, the Green Bag had plummeted a lot or the Yen had soared rapidly. At the bank, I saw a woman wearing the same Uniglo jacket as mine! And I thought that was supposed to be a male design!

The internet temptation was too strong and I lost focus. After some refinement in my planning, I decided to stop my day at Temple 18 instead of going all the way to Temple 19, so that I could spend an hour or more to hook on the net at the big city!! It wasn’t too hard at all to tap a free wifi access. Next, I was walking around trying to find a seat with power plug, and bingo! There was a perfect spot just next to the vending machines. I uploaded a blog entry and tried to update some, but time flies and an hour just passed by like a snap of two fingers! I left at 1pm, grieving every minutes for the lost of my internet access!!

I hadn’t been seeing Circle-K lately. I guessed different prefecture had different number of convenient stores around, just like the Cocoteen drink. I didn’t see it much at Ehime and Kagawa prefectures, but there were a lot at Tokushima-ken! I started to realize the pain on the side of my right knee, due to the fall yesterday!

By noon, it was very sunny and I got another opportunity to don my cool sunglasses again. Passed by KFC and the smell reminded me back home. Passed by a “chimeki” (Doeremon’s bun) shop and got 3 of them as “o-settai”! Then at a traffic light, a cyclist stopped next to me and chatted with me for a while. He left but then cycled back with a sushi rice for me as “o-settai”. I thanked and passed him a name slip as usual, but he went on to get his wallet and pull out 2000yen for me!! I felt embarrassed to accept, but it was an “o-settai”! The feeling was incredible! Although it was just $30 Singapore dollar, it simply felt amazing when you were at this kind of tight budget mission!! Suddenly, I thought of all the “o-settai” that I had received and felt touched, and told myself that I could not disappointed them, and the only way was to, complete the pilgrimage!!

At 3pm, I was about 2km away only. With only half an hour more or so to walk, I thought it would be the best time to take a break too. Since I had my ramen at 10:30am, I ate another bowl of Udon soup, and then did my shopping at the supermarket. Bought my dinner and breakfast for tomorrow, but I spent a little too long than I expected. It was already 4pm and I sped up and saw a huge group at Temple 18. There was a long queue for the temple stamp.

After that, I checked the toilet area and looked for a good spot for my tent. It wasn’t very appealing at all! My mind strayed to the 4000yen lodging that I called yesterday! It was 5pm, and the place was 45 minutes away! My mind strayed again to the hot shower! I decided an early use of one of the two “life-line” (2000yen o-settai) that I had and moved on instantly! Saw a packet of oranges for only 100yen! Grabbed it immediately! And then a dog came from no way following me hoping for some food. “Not another Meiseji’s case please”, I thought! Luckily, this dog had a tag around the neck, and it didn’t follow me too far off! I passed through some dimmed lighted jungle paths before reaching the main road. It was already dark at 5:20pm. Soon, I reached the junction and turned right accordingly to the map. Saw a lady who just came back home and asked for the lodging. It was just next door! Relieved that it was not difficult to find, and I was there at 6pm!

Barged in and met the owner. I was overjoyed that there was even a discount of 500yen!! The owner served me a hot green tea and one bigger Doeremon’s bun, and explained that this period was off-season and hence I was the only tenant again! It would be more packed from March to September! He guided me on a map for the remaining temples at Tokushima, and I was thrilled to find out Bangai 3 had a free lodging!! He then showed me around and brought me to my room. I had my shower right away. The place was very clean and I loved it. There were warm water at the basins, hand towels, tissues, and also hot coffee!! Even the shower and shampoo creams looked a better brand and smelled nicer! After my bath, I met the owner’s wife and she invited me to eat downstairs instead. I chatted with her during my dinner. Later, she came out from the kitchen with a big bowl of fruits! I thanked her very much and left my name slip inside the guest book.

After my meal, I went back to my room and update my blog. Finally finished my two days entries and went to bed around 11:30pm! This place was called Funa-no-Sato!

Today was a fruitful day with 22.7km taken care of.