Walking: 88 Temple Pilgrimage in Shikoku, Japan - October 2023

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.  ...

Today Mike heads to Kobe.  Most of his family is gathering there.  I will complete the loop on my own. The weather report today was not good.  Cold and overcast with rain beginning at 10am.  I got ready to go before breakfast so I could pay and leave. While we were at our fancy breakfast our futons were stowed away.  We ate with Joe.  Last night while we were at dinner they were set up for us.  This is a fancy place.  The lady told Mike something about it being cold.  He realized what she said after I threw one of the chemical heating pads out of my bed.  I was hot all night, I usually am.  Our futons were also set up in the couples configuration. I said goodbye to Mike and Joe.  I was walking by 8:20 and was soon going past Temple 88.  I got a green tea to drink at a vending machine and it was a good thing.  It was 20km before I saw another vending machine.  Fortunately, it was cool and I didn't need...

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.   ...