Temple 61-65:
We departed from Saijo city in the morning to walk from Temple 61-64 along the flat streets of neighborhoods. It's so interesting to walk through " real" Japan and see how the average person lives. One of the major reasons that we love doing these long distance hikes through different countries is the "cultural immersion" aspect of it and moving slowly through the local communities, seeing how people live their everyday lives.
Temple 61: Koonji: As the story goes, when the monk Kukai arrived here, he found a pregnant woman who was in pain, so he lit incense and prayed for her. As a result a boy was safely born. The temple is known as " Koyasu Daishi"- Daishi of protecting children.
We followed the arrows and way markers through villages with narrow streets. Trees are laden with heavy oranges and early cherry blossoms. The air is crisp and cold but the sun is shining.
In almost every street the house styles range from olden traditional architecture to ultra modern, clean straight styles with immaculately manicured gardens.
Every empty patch of ground in-between the houses is used to grow some type of food.
Often a local resident would stop and happily point us in the right direction towards the next temple in Japanese language and hand motions without us asking. We are in awe at the level of politeness and respect people seem to have for each other.
Temple 62: Hojuji: The temple was built in the 8th century and due to the war in 1585 it fell into ruin. It was restored in 1636.
Temple 63: Kichijoji: There is a rock with a hole in the middle. It is said that if you can walk from the main hall with your eyes closed while saying your wish and put your staff through the hole that your prayer will come true. We did not try this but we saw others try and fail. Josh didn't want to trip and fall again on his injured shoulder.
The lady at the Noukyocho office gave us "osettai" in the form of an apple and orange. We felt very grateful at her kind gesture.
Temple 64: Maegamiji: A place of worship for nobles and military families. On the 20th of each month, the three Zao Gongen statues are opened to public viewing and it is believed that if one rubs a part of your body on it that the sickness will be healed. Unfortunately we only read about this after we had visited.
We did meet up with Allessandro from Italy again which was fun.
We then caught a train to the town of Shikokuchuo, the biggest paper manufacturing town in Japan and the location for Temple 65.
Another example of politeness is that the train conductor bows as he enters and leaves each coach.
Temple 65: Sankakuji: The name of this temple is "triangular temple". People believe that the main diety will ward off misfortune and allow for easy childbirth. It is situated high up on a hill with spectacular views of the surrounding mountains and the city below. There were many ancient trees on the temple grounds that were so huge and burdened that branches had to be held up with supports.
We stayed at an outdated hotel called the LiveMax located near the train station but it certainly was value for money at $35. For the first time since we arrived we had a late afternoon and evening off from the trail. We shopped for provisions from a local supermarket called Fuji and it was fun to walk down all the aisles and see what they had in the store. For dinner we ordered take-out veggie pizza from an Italian restaurant which was delicious and Josh had a burger at a McDonald's.
I forgot to mention that a previous city we stayed in called Imabari is a famous towel manufacturing city. We received a small hand towel gift at the hotel we were staying at there.
It would seem that Shikoku is a manufacturing power house in Japan, with each city specializing in a specific product or industry.
Temple 66: Unpenji: " The temple of hovering clouds" This is highest temple on the Shikoku pilgrimage. It's situated on a mountain top at 911m. Fortunately there is a cable car ropeway that takes you up the mountain which gave us spectacular vistas of the surrounding countryside.
The mountain top was covered in snow which made everything even more beautiful. In the temple grounds are 500 statues each uniquely carved with different expressions. We ran into Frank again which was a fun surprise.
Once we reached the base of the ropeway on our way out, we walked for about 2 hours to Temple 67: Daihoji. On the way we met up with Cathy and Stas again who walked by us as we were resting for a few minutes in a roadside Henro Hut. We were also given a packet of candy from a passing truck driver as a gift of "osettai", who just leaned out of his window while driving past and handed it to me. We were so amazed at his random act of kindness!
An enormous Camphor tree in the grounds of Temple 66 was said to be planted by Kukai which makes it about 1200 years old
We walked for another hour to a bus stop and as we were standing on the side of the road trying to to decipher the bus time table, a lady pulled up in her car and asked us whether she could help us. We told her that we wanted to catch the bus and she responded by offering us a ride, saving us from walking another 8km in the late afternoon. Wow, we were blown away by her gift of "osettai" in giving us a ride.
Free fast hiking through the city of Kanonji to reach Temple 68: Jinnein & 69 which sits side by side and made it just in time before the Noukyocho office closed.
It's a Friday and all the hotels are fully booked. We got permission from the monk at Temple 69: Kannonji to camp off to the side of the property. We're here right now beside a huge ancient tree, with the beautiful temples around us. What an epic day!
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