Day 50: 88 Temples (1,2) - Sannomiya

Last night I was in room 605.  It is really 604 but there is no 604. 4 is the same word as death so they often skip it, like 13 in other places.

On my way to the train station I bought some onigiri  for lunch at Lawson.  I was walking from Hiketa a few minutes later.  It was a beautiful day.

The first few kilometers were walking out of the flat suburb/farmland.  The route lead to what looked like a hole in the trees.  From there it was up and up on a path.  I was expecting it to be harder.

After a little downhill on the trail, the route to Temple 1 became road.  One section was a dirt road with ankle breaking billiard ball sized rocks but most of it was paved.

The road had a final steep climb before the descent to Temple 1.  I was at Temple 1 an hour or more before I expected to be.  There I saw two guys I had seen on the trails several times.  They had been chugging up the path to 60 as I was going down.  I congratulated them on completing but it was premature.  They still had 10 temples starting at 11 to do.  I warned them that 11 to 12 was a hard day.

It did a quick temple visit and got my book stamped. It was on the last page.  The monk congratulated me.

I then walked to Temple 2 and got my Temple 2 page stamped.  I have the complete book.  I didn't even bother going to the temple itself ... there were a lot of steps and I'd done them 7 weeks ago.

Temple 2 was on the way to the bus stop which was up at the freeway rest stop.  I walked up there sat down and I was done.

I ate my onigiri and then spent a lot of time trying to get the dog poop out of my shoe treads.  Pick up after your dogs, people.

The bus came and soon I was at my hotel.  Feeling pretty tired.  Feet are sore.  Ankle needs a few days off.  But I feel pretty good.

In total my recorded walking was 1058.5km.  That doesn't include most of the walking around town, going to trains and dinner.  I think I cheated about 150km on trains and buses.

For dinner tonight I selected an Indian restaurant.  It sounded like it might not be the Japanese version of Indian and it was pretty good.  I asked for hot and it was a lot more than Japanese hot - which is not at all.  Only the rice was Japanese.  The restaurant was on the 9th floor of a department store.  In Japan all the good stuff is up.   The sign on the street told me it was on the 9th floor and I followed a sign to an elevator.  The elevator only went to 1,2 and basement.  Two girls and I went up and down several time but could not get to 9.  There were buttons for 9.  I gave up and continued my search for an elevator to 9.  It was in the department store.  The two girls had figured that out too and we had a chuckle when we met at the correct elevator.

I wonder if I can sleep past 6am tomorrow?