Happy New Year!! The first day of 2011! And the last day of my crazy expedition! After 55 days of craziness, I was left with only one final day!! I had lost all senses. The excitement had not hit me yet! In fact, I felt more miserable instead and was going to miss the adventure very much!
I started at 8:07am and it was another snowing day. It was much tougher to walk on the snow, and it got thicker along the pedestrian path as I went further! At some slope, the cars couldn’t move as well. I was very worried about my shoe getting wet, because the snows were basically covering my whole feet! Finally I think the cold moisture managed to slip through and my toes had a hard time since. My fingers and toes seemed to take turns feeling the pain! About an hour plus, I took a break at a shelter to stay away from the heavy snow for a while. After another break, I finally reached Temple 41 in three hours! The temple staff had fallen asleep. I tried to alert the old lady a few times but she couldn't seem to hear. So I waited patiently for the old lady to wake up. Luckily it wasn’t for too long. It must have been tough for her to work on New Year day!
I moved on to Temple 42 and came to a jungle path. The view was breath-taking!! Too beautiful to describe in words, that I had it recorded! Throughout the walk, I had been playing with the snows on and off, like a kid. I just couldn’t refuse the invitation because they were so white and clean and beautiful!! After an hour, I arrived at the last 108th temple of my pilgrimage! The snow had created a scenic around the temple and I took quite a number of shots. Met a few people at the temple, including a cyclist o-henro-san, and boasted around that I was finishing the pilgrimage today!!
Finally to complete the circle and ultimately end my expedition, I made my way to temple 43 again. It was a long and final 10.9km!! I had been following a foot step along the main road that brought me to a jungle path. It must have been a fellow o-henro-san, since the jungle path was a henro path! I took many pictures and a couple of video too! At 389 a.s.l., it started to go downwards. Had a few scary moments, but managed to maintain my balance and avoided a fall! But, the jungle down slope was fun. You wouldn’t know if you were going to plunge into a hole!! Every step I took, my whole feet were basically inside the snow! And, I like my Goretex! The falling snow hit my pants and rebounded like bullets bouncing off from a superman skin!!
Soon, I started to see signs indicating the distance to the temple. 7.7km, 7.0km, 5.1km, 4.6km, 3.2km! All the memories flashed back!! Like I had never started my journey yet at all!! The junctions to the Museum, the high school! Everywhere looked so familiar except this time, the places were covered with snows! As I had not eaten anything since breakfast, I stopped at Lawson to have probably my last convenient store’s bento set for this trip! Moved on again at 3:30pm. 0.8km, 0.6km and finally the last 400m upslope to the car park!! I saw many people coming down after their visit to the temple. I did my last prayer! Walked over to the temple stamp office and met the same staff! After some reminder, he recalled! He asked for my name. I got my last temple stamp and officially ended my Shikoku 88 Temples Pilgrimage (Shikoku Hachiju-Hakka sho) on 1st January 2011 at 4:44pm!! I got a little excited and sent a SMS to my sister!! I went over to the shop near the temple and to pay the owner a visit. He was as usual standing at the entrance greeting everyone passing by! He congratulated me and invited me in for a drink. I apologized because I had to rush to Bangai 8 where I was planning to spend the night at the free lodging next to the Bangai. I hurried to the Unomachi train station, but the next train was only at 6pm. While I was catching my breath, I realized I’d left behind one more thing in this pilgrimage! My mat! Probably at the snowy jungle path on my way down at the slope! Anyway, at least, I wasn’t naked as I initially thought I would be!
Slightly before an hour, I reached Gorou station. According to the map, it looked pretty close. Luckily there were signs in the dark to follow. The Mac Donald sign! The temple was closed to the restaurant. Reached around 7:30pm and met the same guy I saw at Uwajima! Honda-san, from Saitama too, was on holidays. I could not recognize him initially until he reminded me! I excused myself soon to have dinner and bath before they closed. Celebrated my completion with a steak rice! After shower, I was dead tired and could hardly open my eyes. Wanted to stay up longer, but as soon as I dropped on the futon, I was gone…..
Today was the last day of my pilgrimage and I ended it with the final 26.5km!
“And that was how the story ended. It was an amazing journey, with many ups and downs. I walked during day and night. I walked on sunny and rainy days. I walked through windy and snowy days! I spent nights at many amazing free lodging, in my tent, on the benches and even toilets! It was never the destination but the experience along the way. I could not expressed in words how thankful I was to meet so many great people throughout the pilgrimage. But the most important of all… was everyone of you who had been coming back to this blog for more. It was you who kept me going from one temple to another! I did not expect my crazy daily routine could bring laughter and entertainment to anyone! Every day I was so looking forward to the next opportunity to upload my stories! And 56 days seemed like 56 hours! At one end, I was thrilled and proud of myself for making this crazy trip a reality. On the other end, I somehow felt heavy hearted that the pilgrimage had ended because I would not be able bring anymore laughter to my fellow readers! Till the next craziness, thanks again to everyone for spending the time here and I hope you had a crazy time just like I did !! Kio tsuketene !”
Monday, 24 January 2011
Sunday, 2 January 2011
31st Dec – Day 55, Bangai 6 (Ryuukouin)
It was a great sleep last night. Couldn't wake up this morning!! Around 7:15am, I had to pinch my butt to get out of the bed! My schedule was hay-wired!! When I was having my breakfast, I was shocked to see outside the window that everywhere was covered with snows!!!
The owner, Asada-san was a very delicate and thoughtful person. Even our slippers were organized nicely outside the dining room, although we kept going in and out! He would also help to heat up your food and volunteer to keep your things in the fridge and prepared everything well organized for you! This youth hostel was really well maintained by him and his wife. Later I even noticed all the hand towels around were changed daily!!
I finally left the hostel at 9:30am! There was a park just besides it with a nice view of the city! Could even catch a glimpse of the famous Uwajima Castle, one of those still remain at its original form since 400 years ago!
I was walking to this sex museum and it was still snowing lightly! The snow fell gently on my face and it was pretty cool, for someone like me who came from outer space! I was really enjoying my walk feeling very thrilled seeing heavy snows in the city! I thought of enjoying the view all the way, but soon it got very heavy that I had to get sheltered before I was buried with snows! Today, I felt more like a tourist and almost forgotten I was still a walking henro!
After a short half an hour walk, I reached the museum. Paid the 800yen entrance fee and felt excited about what I was going to discover inside! It was a three storey museum, but I really thought one level would already be sufficient! Kind of not what I expected. I was looking for something more educational, but it turned out to be more artistic instead. There were many paintings and pictures; artifacts and statues. Nevertheless, I took my time to make the 800yen worth! After around an hour, I almost read the fine-print as well! Left discontented! Went to look for lunch and just stepped in one not too expensive to avoid the heavy snow! But after the 700yen meal, I was still hungry and unhappy again!!
I walked over to the train station to check out the fare and distance to various destinations for my next mission after the pilgrimage tomorrow! By now, it was already 12pm and I was basically inclined to stay another night at the hostel. It might have been better to walk further 8km to sleep out at a Michi-no-eki so that tomorrow would be a more relaxing day! But I thought maybe I should not be too harsh to myself to cross the New Year Day in a toilet again!!
And so I started my pilgrimage today at 12:30pm and ended it in 30 minutes later!! I walked over to Bangai 6, which was pretty nice! I supposed so since it was situated in the center of the city and became a tourist attraction. Probably if I dropped by slightly earlier or later of the day, it would be even more scenic with the thicker snow! I came right at the time when it was sunny and with melted snow everywhere around. The temple staff was very friendly and spoke English with me! He knew Asada-san too and complimented him a very nice guy as well! He later passed me an envelope as o-settai, which I thought it contained only the charm. I thanked him with the name slip and left to find out that he actually returned me the 300yen temple stamp fee too!! I felt more obliged to complete my next mission after the pilgrimage!
After the temple visit, I was pretty aimless and my basic instinct just brought me to the Mc Donald to eat again! I got myself another key strap! And this time round, with a hot drink!! Who said you must have LARGE cold drink to get the key strap?!
Next, I realized I had a problem! I had run out of money and the banks were closing for 3 to 4 days due to the New Year! Glad the post office has an ATM that accepted PLUS bank card, and I was many thousands yen richer again!!
Didn’t know where to go next, I just sat outside the shopping mall to go online and waited for the time to get my dinner and breakfast. Saw a couple of ladies from China speaking mandarin. I tried to impress with a few of my own, but obviously I failed miserably! They left uninterested!
Around 3:30pm, I tried to go back to the stall selling 250yen meal box. Couldn't find it initially and went in a supermarket instead. There weren’t many choices for dinner. Decided to go back to Sunshine supermarket that I went yesterday. On the way, I found the 250yen shop but sadly it was already closed! Just when I was about to reach the supermarket, I saw a stall selling set meals and got my dinner there instead. Walked back to the hostel in heavy snow again! Wanted to count the 600 steps again but I missed the sign!
Today, there were many more guests at the hostel. And the owners were preparing special dinners for them. So, I waited to have dinner together. I had my showered and started enjoying my internet access. When it was time for meal, the host made some announcements that there would be some celebration at the shrine nearby at 11:30pm. Dinner was served shortly and I also treated a bottle of Asahi beer and a bowl of Udon with lots of ingredients as “o-settai”!! There was even a music performance from the hosts! Asada-san and his kids were playing the music instruments! I was so full after the meal!
I spent the rest of the night uploading my blog using the dead slow access, drinking the boozes and eating junk food to celebrate the New Year! Around 11:40pm, Asada-san gathered everyone to the shrine but only 6 brave souls dared the cold outside, including Asada-san and his daughter! We went to the temple first. Asada-san explained that it was a custom to ring the bell there twice to purify yourself before New Year. Kind of like getting rid of all the bad things behind and start afresh in the new year! Then, we walked over to the shrine to pray for good year ahead! There were many people at the shrine, and the staffs were handling out hot sweet sake for free! I tried some and it tasted like “bo bo cha cha” (A kind of Chinese hot dessert)! After a brief stay, we went back to the hostel where we pop a cracker each and wished everyone “Happy New Year”! I thanked Asada-san very much for inviting me to join them, and dived into my bed at 1am!
Today was the 2nd last day and I had a wonderful 1.5km walk for my pilgrimage, thanks to the “interesting” Sex Museum!
The owner, Asada-san was a very delicate and thoughtful person. Even our slippers were organized nicely outside the dining room, although we kept going in and out! He would also help to heat up your food and volunteer to keep your things in the fridge and prepared everything well organized for you! This youth hostel was really well maintained by him and his wife. Later I even noticed all the hand towels around were changed daily!!
I finally left the hostel at 9:30am! There was a park just besides it with a nice view of the city! Could even catch a glimpse of the famous Uwajima Castle, one of those still remain at its original form since 400 years ago!
I was walking to this sex museum and it was still snowing lightly! The snow fell gently on my face and it was pretty cool, for someone like me who came from outer space! I was really enjoying my walk feeling very thrilled seeing heavy snows in the city! I thought of enjoying the view all the way, but soon it got very heavy that I had to get sheltered before I was buried with snows! Today, I felt more like a tourist and almost forgotten I was still a walking henro!
After a short half an hour walk, I reached the museum. Paid the 800yen entrance fee and felt excited about what I was going to discover inside! It was a three storey museum, but I really thought one level would already be sufficient! Kind of not what I expected. I was looking for something more educational, but it turned out to be more artistic instead. There were many paintings and pictures; artifacts and statues. Nevertheless, I took my time to make the 800yen worth! After around an hour, I almost read the fine-print as well! Left discontented! Went to look for lunch and just stepped in one not too expensive to avoid the heavy snow! But after the 700yen meal, I was still hungry and unhappy again!!
I walked over to the train station to check out the fare and distance to various destinations for my next mission after the pilgrimage tomorrow! By now, it was already 12pm and I was basically inclined to stay another night at the hostel. It might have been better to walk further 8km to sleep out at a Michi-no-eki so that tomorrow would be a more relaxing day! But I thought maybe I should not be too harsh to myself to cross the New Year Day in a toilet again!!
And so I started my pilgrimage today at 12:30pm and ended it in 30 minutes later!! I walked over to Bangai 6, which was pretty nice! I supposed so since it was situated in the center of the city and became a tourist attraction. Probably if I dropped by slightly earlier or later of the day, it would be even more scenic with the thicker snow! I came right at the time when it was sunny and with melted snow everywhere around. The temple staff was very friendly and spoke English with me! He knew Asada-san too and complimented him a very nice guy as well! He later passed me an envelope as o-settai, which I thought it contained only the charm. I thanked him with the name slip and left to find out that he actually returned me the 300yen temple stamp fee too!! I felt more obliged to complete my next mission after the pilgrimage!
After the temple visit, I was pretty aimless and my basic instinct just brought me to the Mc Donald to eat again! I got myself another key strap! And this time round, with a hot drink!! Who said you must have LARGE cold drink to get the key strap?!
Next, I realized I had a problem! I had run out of money and the banks were closing for 3 to 4 days due to the New Year! Glad the post office has an ATM that accepted PLUS bank card, and I was many thousands yen richer again!!
Didn’t know where to go next, I just sat outside the shopping mall to go online and waited for the time to get my dinner and breakfast. Saw a couple of ladies from China speaking mandarin. I tried to impress with a few of my own, but obviously I failed miserably! They left uninterested!
Around 3:30pm, I tried to go back to the stall selling 250yen meal box. Couldn't find it initially and went in a supermarket instead. There weren’t many choices for dinner. Decided to go back to Sunshine supermarket that I went yesterday. On the way, I found the 250yen shop but sadly it was already closed! Just when I was about to reach the supermarket, I saw a stall selling set meals and got my dinner there instead. Walked back to the hostel in heavy snow again! Wanted to count the 600 steps again but I missed the sign!
Today, there were many more guests at the hostel. And the owners were preparing special dinners for them. So, I waited to have dinner together. I had my showered and started enjoying my internet access. When it was time for meal, the host made some announcements that there would be some celebration at the shrine nearby at 11:30pm. Dinner was served shortly and I also treated a bottle of Asahi beer and a bowl of Udon with lots of ingredients as “o-settai”!! There was even a music performance from the hosts! Asada-san and his kids were playing the music instruments! I was so full after the meal!
I spent the rest of the night uploading my blog using the dead slow access, drinking the boozes and eating junk food to celebrate the New Year! Around 11:40pm, Asada-san gathered everyone to the shrine but only 6 brave souls dared the cold outside, including Asada-san and his daughter! We went to the temple first. Asada-san explained that it was a custom to ring the bell there twice to purify yourself before New Year. Kind of like getting rid of all the bad things behind and start afresh in the new year! Then, we walked over to the shrine to pray for good year ahead! There were many people at the shrine, and the staffs were handling out hot sweet sake for free! I tried some and it tasted like “bo bo cha cha” (A kind of Chinese hot dessert)! After a brief stay, we went back to the hostel where we pop a cracker each and wished everyone “Happy New Year”! I thanked Asada-san very much for inviting me to join them, and dived into my bed at 1am!
Today was the 2nd last day and I had a wonderful 1.5km walk for my pilgrimage, thanks to the “interesting” Sex Museum!
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)