Day 37: 88 Temples (60) - Nyūgawa

Everything went to plan.  I was at breakfast before 6:00 and I was about 15th in line.  I ate quickly and was only about 10th out the door.  I walked to the train station just as the sky was starting to show some light.  I bought my ticket and waited on the platform.

On the train it looked like the conductor wasn't paying much attention to fares and the fare board was blank.  I was wondering if it was a free day because of the holiday.  When I got off the train at lyo-Komatsu Station she came running towards me.  I was just the first one the exit the train. She was happy to get my ticket.

I was repeating some of yesterday's walk to Temple 61.  On the way I stopped at the same FamilyMart.  Not pronounced Family Mart, by the way, more like fa-mi-re-ma-to.  I got onigiri, chips and a litre of green tea.

Soon I was walking past Temple 61 and since it wasn't 7 yet the restroom was still closed ... inconvenient but not a problem.  There was quite a herd of driving Henro already milling around in front of the temple.  They don't look sweaty and disheveled like the walking Henro.

It was about 6km to join up with the Henro route going up to Temple 60.  The exit was near 61 and I considered doing the reverse walk but I wanted to end near transportation rather than further from it.

The walk from 61 was along the road at the base of the hills.  Other than dog walkers it was virtual empty.  A few kids on bikes and I saw a school soccer team doing warmups just past 7am on a holiday.  One dog walker asked me a question but quickly learned all I knew how to say was "good morning".

Then I was in kaki (persimmon) and mikan (mandarin orange) groves.  There was some vine fruit I didn't know and some kiwi fruit vines.

I got off the farm roads and on to a road.  This road started to climb up the river valley and the higher it went the narrower it got.  It also got increasingly steep.  There was almost no traffic.  It was really nice walking.

At the end of the road was a Henro hut were I took a little break.  I was then on the best maintained, prettiest trail up to the temple.  And as an added bonus the steps fit my stride perfectly.  There were a few weekend hikers going up the mountain and one guy was huffing and puffing pretty bad before the trail.  Two guys in dress shoes laft their car and walked up.  While it was only about 2km, it was straight up.

At the temple I was a little surprised I was there so early.  It was before 10am.  That early start really makes a difference.  There were quite a few driving Henro and I was careful to time my visit to the office between the clumps.  The monk had very nice script.

I exited the temple from the back which is how the driving Henro got there.  I saw a woman walking toward me leaning heavily on her staff and realized I didn't have mine.  I made a funny exclamation and movement and rushed back to the office; when I saw the woman again we shared a chuckle.

The downhill was not as interesting as the uphill but it was a lot longer.  I met some tired Henro coming up and gave them encouragement.  I was going down on the trail for nearly an hour and a half.  Just before the road I met Alistair coming up.  I told him the back side was much nicer than what he was about to climb.  He was starting a little late it was nearly 12:30.  Hope he didn't get stuck walking in the dark.

When I got to the road I checked my distances.  I was hoping to make a train at 1:15 but I was 4km away and wasn't going to make it.  I was only 7km from the hotel so I wasn't going to hang around a train station for an hour or more for 3km.

I walked to the hotel on exactly the same route as yesterday.  Mike was good enough to get some beer and snacks for my arrival.  That tasted good.

For dinner we did a repeat of Shanghai Ken and completely forgot to take any pictures again.  There isn't a lot open on the holiday and this town is pretty dead anyway.

As we waited for the elevator we noticed that the screen at the call button showed the inside of the elevator.  Don't get caught picking your nose!