Day 45: 88 Temples (83) - Takamatsu

We caught 7:52 bus a few blocks from the hotel ... it was 4 minutes late!  I'm going to write a letter to the transit commission.  At Takamatsu Station we boarded the 8:15 train to Kinashi.  Happily the high school student content was very low.  


Takamatsu Station has a nice plaza and new buildings around it.  It was refreshing to see something new for a change.  Old stuff is great, but after a while it gets, you know, old.


Today was quite a flat day and there would be only one temple.  We were walking less than 20km so we expected to finish early.  It was colder than it has been and I regretted not putting my gloves in my day pack.  I considered putting my jacket on a few times but it was really only my hands that were cold.


As we walked along a bicycle path beside a river, a cyclist stopped and started talking to us.  Mike said his Japanese was about the same the guys English so it was lively conversation with only a bunch of misunderstandings.  His name was Kubo and he was a car salesman, surfer and big Monkey Magik fan. Monkey Magik is a Canadian/Japanese band.  We did not know them so he played some for us as he walked us to Temple 84.  He walked with us for about 2km.  He was a local and wanted to show us the temple.  As we were getting ready to leave he bought us hot coffee Osettai; it tasted pretty good on the cold day.


Temple 83 is a nice temple and had some nice trees


We were walking along a busy road with a nice wide sidewalk at lunchtime and stopped at one of the restaurants.  It was yakiniku which means you cook it yourself at the table.


After that most of the remaining distance was beside a river.  There were some nice birds but, as usual, the big ones fly off as soon as you think about pointing a camera at them.


The last 3km was along a busy road lined with big box stores.  I counted 2 giant golfing stores.  Lots of restaurants with parking lots.  Many young and very old people riding bikes passed us.


We stopped at the base of the hill going up to Temple 84 and caught the train back to our hotel in Takamatsu.  In the morning we will take the train back to that station and walk to Temple 84 and 85.


Bad gaijin alert.  Both us and a Chinese couple across from us we were sitting in the priority seats.  I am allowed to use them - cause I'm old - and the Chinese couple might have been eligible, but Mike is not.  He is a bad gaijin.  Of course, those priority seats signs are not well respected.


For dinner we had to go to the place with the giant black chicken out front.  It was a fairly fancy place ... yakiniku.


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