Day 23: 88 Temples (39) - Sukumo

After my giant sized tonkatsu last night I slept well and had a bit of oomff today.  Hotel breakfast was pretty good and I had lots of trips to the coffee maker.

I was in no rush to get out to the temple as it was a pretty short day and I was just coming back to the same hotel.  Staying two nights in the same place is a nice break.  A little down time is needed every so often.

I was on the road before 10am and walked several kilometers past the temple along the main road before turning around.  The main road had a sidewalk but when the route diverted to side roads it was a welcome break from the noise of the traffic.

Temple 39 was a kilometer off the main road up a pretty valley.  Not bad but nothing special.  At 39 temples my wow level is pretty high.

As I was leaving the temple I received Osettai from woman in the parking lot.  She spoke very good English and wanted to know how I heard about this pilgrimage and my reasons for doing it.  She said many people learned of this walk on the Camino de Santiago.  I told her I knew of this walk before I knew of the Camino.

There was a nice walk on a path through the woods leaving the temple before getting back to the main road.  The route did get off the main road several times but it was not well marked.

On one of the side roads will I was on the phone with my youngest son I saw a blond Henro walking toward me.  He had an English accent.  We chatted for a bit and found we were at the same hotel.  He was Alistair  and we agreed to met for Italian dinner.  It would be a nice break.

I wasn't really planning on having lunch but I thought that if a ramen place happened I would eat a bowl of noodles.  Then I walked by a ramen place.  I went in.  I was the only customers in an old style restaurant.  It looked like an old guy and his son.  They were not the chatty sort.  I ordered ramen and some gyoza.  Without speaking, the old guy made my ramen and the young guy made my gyoza.  Not a word until I paid and they said thank you and goodbye.

I was near the bridge into the city and an energetic little guy on bicycle stops me and says he has met 10000 Henro.  I don't remember the actual number but it was a lot.  He spoke English and started firing off questions faster than I could answer.  Where you from? Why are you doing this? Where are you staying? Where did you stay last night? Two nights ago? What route did you take? Why did you go that way?  He also gave me some route advice for tomorrow.  I could take the easy highway or the mountain route.  I think I'm taking the mountain way.

I think my answer to why I'm doing this to both that asked was: adventure, culture, health, challenge and food.

Dinner with Alistair was interesting.  He is actually born and raised in Hong Kong. He did some boarding school in England but has spent most of his young life in HK - he does not speak Chinese.  Apparently, the expat community is big enough and so many people speak English you can grow up speaking only English.  He's spending 6 months in Japan before university in England.

The food was Italian with the expected Japanese influence.  I forgot to take pictures.

One the way back we passed a second floor bar that had incredibly steep steps.  I can't imagine how many drunks have fallen down those steps.