Temples 56-58: Quitting is not an option

 

One of the pilgrim oaths reads "I will not complain if things do not go well while on the pilgrimage, but consider such experience to be part of ascetic training".

Our first thought this morning was that it might be a good option to rent a car and turn the backpacking adventure into a road trip adventure. We spent a few hours going to three car rental places only to finally discover that unless we have a Japanese drivers license we cannot rent a car (an international drivers license isn't valid either). There were only 2 other options left, one was to quit and go home and Josh could just not come to terms with that idea.  Since quitting was not an option we had to adapt our backpacks. I assumed some of his weight onto my pack and he rigged his backpack to go over his right shoulder and assume most of the weight of the pack by synching the hip and chest straps tightly. His left arm stayed immobilized in a sling and it worked! We're back on the trail!

Temple 56: Taisanji: In olden times almost every year the nearby Soja River flooded over and many people died. In 815 Kukai directed the people to create a levee. The path takes you onto this levee. 

Enroute a lady pulled up ahead of us, jumped out of her car and gleefully presented us each with a little " osettai" envelope containing coins (the equivalent of about $8  each). We were so touched by her gift! The joyous look on her face when she presented it to us just made my day.

Temple 57: Eifukuji: On each side of the main hall are copies of the Buddhist feet rocks from a temple in India.

We encountered many walking o-henro-san along the path. Some people drive from Temple to Temple in cars, some take group tours on buses and some walk. It feels good to be doing the journey on foot and we both agreed that we were glad that we couldn't take the easy way out and rent a car 

Temple 58: Senyuji: During the mid 7th century a local ruler built this temple . The temple was restored by Kukai. To get to this temple we had to climb. It was tough going and as we arrived at the entrance, to our amazement it started snowing. The air temperature was 36 degrees F ( about 2 degrees C). It was so beautiful up there on the mountain top in the temple grounds with the snow flurries falling onto the cherry tree blossoms. On the was down from the mountain the winds picked up and it actually started hailing for a few minutes. The thought of food and a warm comfy bed in the next town kept us motivated and just before we arrived at the nearest hotel on the route we came across a burger joint called "MOS Burger" which turned into our dinner destination since they also served plant based burgers which I could enjoy 

I am in awe of Josh's strength in body and mind. He's such a trooper just tolerating his shoulder pain so that we can keep on going. I will add that at the same time he is taking care not to strain his injury and is keeping his arm immobilized in the sling.

We read about these Buddhist precepts to living in our guide book.

*I will not harm life *I will not steal *I will not commit adultery *I will not tell a lie *I will not exaggerate *I will not speak abusively * I will not cause discord * I will not be greedy *I will not be hateful * I will not lose sight of the truth.