1st Jan – Day 56 (Last Day), Temple 41 to 43 (Ryuukouji, Butsumokuji, Meisekiji)

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 !”