Day 12: 88 Temples (27) - Aki

Last night Mike tried a KT taping of the back side of his knee and slept soundly.  It was the first night all trip I didn't hear him moaning.  


This morning we enjoyed the Lawson breakfast we purchased last night.  I enjoyed cold black coffee and potato chips.  


We started walking between the sea and mountains.  The area seemed quite depressed and many buildings were looking pretty rough.  As we neared the temple climb there were new houses and the economy seemed to improve.


We had a steep 400m climb over about 4km.  We were on the road for the first 3km and then the walking Henro path cut straight up as the road made switchbacks.  Thinking we were at the top we were only at the first parking lot and cafe.  A little more up brought us to the temple gate.  Level to the temple office and then several steep flights of stairs to the main temple.  Usualy we are pretty happy to get near the temple office because we dump our packs there and climb any temple stairs much lighter.


Temple 27 is an A-list temple.  Manicured and well tended.  Nice bathrooms even.  We even bothered to read the QR code information and found that there was a miracle spring near to where we were sitting that cures ailments.


Mike drank the miricle water for his knees.  He is all better now.


Coming down we took the road as steep downhill is harder than going up.  Downhill hurts, uphill is just work.  It was 4km down.


Just after it leveled out we saw a Lawson and stopped for lunch with 9km to go.  Conbinis in most of Asia have decent food and you can survive on what they have.


As we walked a mother and her kid were coming towards us.  It seemed a little strange because they came from no obvious place.  Them were coming to meet us and gave Osettai - a can of lemonade each.  After we thanked them and gave slips they scampered back in the direction they came and disappeared.  The must have passed us on the road, parked and walked back.  It was nice.


Mike wanted a backpack break and a Lawson appeared with about. 3km to go.   Not really needing anything we thought a beer would be nice.  Mike asked if ok to drink beer in the snack counter area ... no problem.  


Our Ryokan is basic but has what you need but no food so we went out for dinner.  We walked around a bit and probably didn't make the best choice but it was ok.  We went to an izakaya place - every restaurant this town seems to be that style.  Izakaya is small plates, like Spanish tapas.  Sorry no food pictures tonight.


As I write I have to mention there is an intersection walk beeper just outside.  It beeps different tones for each walking direction.  It will be interesting to see how those sounds get incorporated our dreams.

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