Day 6: 88 Temples - Katsuura

Slept to 6:30.  It sun comes up around 6:00 and it goes from dark to light in a matter of a few minutes.  I was feeling a little slow for the rest of the morning.  Not quite a hangover but I definitely felt the wine and beers from last night.  

Mike and I met for breakfast downstairs at the Super Hotel.  It was self service but it was good.  After it was back to our rooms and I lay around untill nearly 10.  Mike had some work stuff to deal with but I don't do that and enjoyed some YouTube.

We walked back to the Anan JR Station and bought our tickets for the train back to Temple 19. Today was a no-temple day and we only had 10km to walk so we moved slowly and took our time.  We waited a few minutes for the train and soon we're back to Tatsue JR Station.

We walked past the 19 and picked up the route.  The road was narrow and the traffic was moving pretty fast making for an unpleasant walk.  When we saw a walking Henro route arrow away from the main road we took it just to get away from it.  It wound around through backyards and farmer's fields but this route was much nicer.  For this walking pilgrimage to become popular outside of Japan the current route needs to start finding alternate routes like this little section to avoid some of these busy narrow roads.

By the time we rejoined the main route the traffic was quieter and the road was wider.  We stopped for a drink at a quiet little store.  The old guy running it added up our bill of chips and a bottle of tea on an abacus.  First time we've seen this.  When I was a kid in Tokyo all the shopkeepers totalled everything up with an abacus.  Today the cost seemed low for the two items and even though Mike and I got almost the same thing the amount was different ... maybe he shoulda used a calculator.

As we finished our drinks a Henro caught up.  She said hello and then said she remembered us from the Ryokan at the end of day 2.  Communication was difficult.  We walk near her for several kilometers.  We came to another alternate route marker and found her puzzling over it.  This one was not marked as well as the earlier one and none of us had the confidence to try it and we stuck to the main road.

Naturally the road immediately got narrower and the cars faster and there were lots of blind corners.  At one intersection therehad been a car accident.  A car with a smushed frontend was in the middle of the intersection.  By this point the road was basically a highway and cars were moving pretty fast.

There was a sign which pointed to a restaurant which Google said was only a slight detour.  We needed to kill an hour before arriving at our minshuku and lunch sounded good.  The Garden Time restaurant turned out to be a cute little county spot where ladies who lunch would go.  To order we reviewed a menu and then bought a ticket at a machine.  We handed the ticket to the waitress and sat at our table.  Soon our food arrived.

After lunch we continued on to rejoin the main road.  A pickup stopped and the guys told us the Henro route was over there.  We got on some busy road before rejoining the route which sort of had a walking shoulder.  Just off the road there was a quiet local road were moved over to.  I think a lot of the busy roads between 19 and Katsuura could be avoided with a little effort.

Our minshuku is very nice.  An older woman runs it and she cooked a very nice meal for us and another Henro from Okayama.  He is on a 9 day partial pilgrimage.  He says he will end near Kochi and catch the train home.  Tomorrow he has a 40km day.

For us tomorrow will be a 20km day with a good bit of climbing.  There are 2 or 3 temples ... we end near the third so we could visit at the end of tomorrow or the start of the next day.