Day 38: 88 Temples (none) - Shikokuchuo

Today we took the 7:42 train.  I was running late and we arrived at the train station at 7:40.  The train was already there but on the furthest track.  I was purchasing tickets while Mike got to the platform.  I then had to run up and down the stairs to the far platform.  Just made it.  Sweating, of course.

The car was full of high school students and it felt like we were the new kids at school and didn't know which lunch table we could sit at.  Some older guy had staked out 4 seats and none of the kids were sitting down so I barged in.

We got off at the station we had gotten off two days ago.  We walked past Temple 64 and followed the signs to Temple 65 - 44.7km away.  Today we were walking half of that and taking the bus to Shikokuchuo.  Tomorrow we walk the other half.

The walk was through suburbs.  We were mostly on residential streets parallel to a very busy road.  Sometimes we had to walk on the busy road.  Not great walking today.  It was very flat which my legs appreciated after yesterday.

We stopped for lunch at a chain family restaurant (there is another one across the street I can see out my hotel window).  It was cheap and filling.

While passing some construction in the road one of the workers gave us each a tangerine.

We were monitoring the bus schedule and walking until the bus that fit our desired arrival time passed. We stood at the stop and got very anxious when the 14:07 was 4 minutes late.  I'm sure the two other passengers were a bit anxious about that too.  I am glad the buses haven't been at all crowded because I can't fit into the tiny seats when they are not.  I'm just too big for them.  It's like visiting a kindergarten classroom and having to sit at your kid's desk.

I did receive a nice video call on the bus and chatted with family at Thanksgiving dinner even though you are not supposed to use phones on the bus.  Mike was brothered but the driver probably didn't notice.

Tonight and tomorrow we are at the Super Hotel.  This is the chain we have liked the best.  We will always try to stay in one.  Last two nights we were at an AZ Hotel, which has good rooms and a great price but the beds are hard.

Tonight at dinner we set a new standard for bad gaijin behavior.  We went to a conveyor belt sushi place.  We started grabbing dishes off the conveyor as they went by.  We we quite enjoying the meal.  What we didn't understand is that were were supposed to be ordering dishes on the tablet at the table.  The dishes were color coded for your table.  We were stealing food from the people down stream of us.  We felt quite bad when we realized what we had been doing.  We did try using the system correctly for the last few orders and it works quite well when people don't steal your food. You select something (using the English version) on the tablet and press order.  It then comes down the conveyor in a color coded dish and the tablet tells you it's coming.  Oooops.  Bad gaijin.

Fortunately, the stack of dishes at the table also serves as a record of what you ordered so the attendant was able to correct the order.  I just hope nobody got charged for any of the stolen dishes.