Day 43: 88 Temples (76-79) - Marugame

Tonight is one of those nights when the blog is hard.  I got in after 4pm and went to the Onsen while my laundry was in.  It wasn't done so we had a beer.  It got done but we had another.  Then we went to a brew pub where we had several more.  Now it's much later than usual and I'm tired.

We took the 7:56 train back to Konzoji Station.  On board were hords of high school kids. Japanese kids can be pretty rude to anybody else on their train. Not all were glued to their phones today; some had books open ... must be test day.

Temple 76 was just down the street from the station.  Big temple, not much charm and quite a few Henro.  There was a group of European women we saw a few times during the day.  Some tour group, I think.

At Temple 77 we saw Leo from Taiwan and snow Henro hut guy.  We saw them again at Temple 79 and on the way to 80.  Temple 77 was nothing special.  It's a little disappointing when you get to a temple and try to take interesting pictures when it doesn't inspire.

After Temple 77 we walked some busy road with no shoulder.  We stopped at a 7-11 for a latte and a snack - we had walked 6km after all.  My latte came out if the machine with no milk and that had the 7-11 girls fixing the machine.  While we were sitting a woman getting coffee asked us a million questions.  I smiled and nodded and Mike answered most of them.  She though we looked good for our age (she was older by a few years).  When leaving she came back and gave us tissue packets for Osettai.  She was very nice.

After that we got on side roads or the main road had sidewalks.  We walked right past our hotel.

We were starting to think about lunch - udon was the plan - but places either looked dodgy or weren't udon.  We saw a WorkMan store and headed to it because I needed new insoles.  I used to think that shoe salespeople we're just trying to upsell you by saying the ones that come with your shoes are crap, but it's kinda true.  When your insoles are compressed to the shape of your feet, some new insoles can really help.

That little detour brought us past a place we would have otherwise missed and it had good udon.

Temple 78 was in a neighborhood, up a small hill.  It was a good temple.  It had nice gardens and some nice views.

After Temple 78, I was going to walk to the train station just at Temple 80 and Mike was going to take the train back after 79.  I had 12km to walk and it was about 1pm so I left him and really picked up my pace.

Temple 79 was a nice temple with Shinto gates all around it.  I walked through a Shinto shrine to get to it.  I don't understand the relationship between Buddhist and Shinto stuff but it seems they aren't at odds.  At least now.  I read somewhere, someone made some no co-mingling rules once.  I also remember my father saying, "In Japan 50% of the people are Christian, 50% are Buddhist and 50% are Shinto.". He was a sociology professor, but he was also a jokester.

Mike showed up just as I was leaving, as did the hord of European women Henro.  He beat them to the stamping office - just barely.

I walked fast to the Kokubu Station across the street from Temple 80.  I passed Taiwan Leo and snow Henro hut guy.  Those guys are carrying some big packs.  I think they are wild camping a lot so they don't have much choice.

I was tired but it felt good.  That probably lead to all the beers.

Dinner was a pretty good hamburger and craft beer.

Coming back from dinner in the hotel lobby we saw our friends from Taiwan.  This time we had a conversation.  We have been seeing Ryan and his wife for a while.  She started with their son, then Ryan took over and now he has to get back to work right after Temple 88.  She is going to finish at 1.