Day 48: 88 Temples (88) - Ryokan Takeyashiki

We caught the 8:13 train and while waiting on the platform the train coming from our destination was packed.  We were concerned our train was going to be crowded but people were only coming into town.  We had lots of seats and by the time we got to Nagao there was only one other guy and the driver on the train.


We made a stop at the Lawson near the train station for money and onigiri for lunch.


We walked through some suburbs and started climbing very gradually.  The route ran parallel to the busy main road most of the time.  The more rural it got the more the gradient increased.


At about 6km we got to a damn and a decision point.  Longer road around or shorter road up and over.  My map route was up and over so that was the way we went.  We ended up doing a lot more climbing, a bit of a scary peak section and a really hard descent.  


The views were amazing and the trail was really nice but needed some maintenance.  Many of the log steps were rotted out.  Near the peak the trail went nearly verticle and we were on all fours.  The view at the top was pretty good.


The downward side wasn't quite as steep but it was steep.  At one point we could see the temple directly below us and it was half a kilometer but it was a 200m descent.  The down hurt.  The path looked swept and after a bit we came up on a guy doing the sweeping.  He said he did this once a week as he nimbly bounced away.


Finally, we reached the temple at the bottom.  I just started to survey the area and there was Claude.  He was pretty happy to be done.


Temple 88 ... yeah ... we rushed to get our stamps as a tour bus had just arrived.  A big group came in as we were leaving.  It was a pretty short visit.  We were tired and wanted to finish the 3km to the Ryokan.


Our room is quite nice we have a toilet and sink.  We have the back supports for sitting on the floor.  We have tea.  After tea we headed to the Onsen.


Joe was in the Onsen and explained the stamps we had been collecting.  We got 3 red ones and one special blue one in addition to the fancy script.  The blue stamp is just for this year as the 1250 anniversary.  When you visit again they do the red stamps again.


Dinner was at 6pm and we got a knock to let us know.  Joe came in and joined us.  Dinner was very good.  We forgot to take pictures.  It was a lot of food.  All good.


It's almost 8pm ... bed time.


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