Day 15. Rain, change of plans, hardship and paradise

10th of April.

Other quest had requested breakfast for 6AM so I figured I'll join the club. Easier for host probably to do both at the same time. Good breakfast with rice, miso soup, salad, cooked egg, sausage and bit of this and that plus banana. Peaceful watching outside with fishermen going to the sea.

I was first to go out. The older lady would be leaving later but had plan to go further than I today so I was sure I would meet her again.

Day started without rain which was good so I proceeded to the walker/biker path which I would follow for 3km or so before it joined into route 55 with lawson in front. Guess what that called for? Second breakfest! Unusually staff member was foreigner. So used to Japanese by now took me a second to realize he was talking in english to me :D

Narrow but then again it's for walkers and cyclists so no problem.

Biggest difference in view of Japan town and Finland town is that clustered feeling!

Michi no eki(basically rest/shop area). Too bad it was actually closed as yet so apart from quick toilet stop didn't get chance to use it. Could have done with quick snack.

Little mermaid right outside!

Soon road cut out of highway leading into smaller town streets which I generally prefer over highway. Here I got to see locall volunteering action(common especially in smaller towns in Japan). Volunteers, often old grandmother like women but also spotted younger female in her early 20's and older men were standing at various intersections halting and informing cars when elementary school children were going to go across. I talked with one group about this complementing on their work and then realized I forgot to ask was this voluntary action or some sort of part time job by local goverment so spotting next group stopped again and asked and got told it's indeed on voluntary basis doing this because they want to make sure children are safe.

Roads feel often scary enough for me that I can understand why they feel the need for it! Also kids are bit impetuous at times so maybe even cars appreciate warning that there's young ones coming from blind spot!

Eventually I came into point where I cut off from the highway 55 for the last time. Yey! Good bye route 55. I must have walked about 100km+ alongside you. Nice to get rid of you for now. At least have another road number to stare at!

Alas by now rain had started in serious amount so I had to pack stuff into my back bag. Still not enough to pull out rain coat at least.

Castle? Unexpected sight but would take hours to go there and back so had to pass.

Some sort of statue sculpting shop I presume.

Even Mickey Mouse!

Hear not monkey. One of 3 wise monkeys of Japan's saying "see no evil, hear no evil, speak no evil"

Speak not monkey.

See not monkey.

2 kilometers to the temple! Yey!

Giraffe statue was marking route to a animal park.

Seems like some sort of amusement park over there.

I came quickly into where temple 28 was supposed to be but map wasn't too detailed and phone map wasn't too detailed either so I oomphed and aamphed at point I thought might be the walker path before continuing and spotting eventually marker that led me to right path. One of the trickier parts.

Uhhuh. Stairway.

And what a stairway! This is tough one to climb.

Arrival to the temple #28 Dainichiji(The great sun temple). Third temple within pilgrimage to share the name. As name hints Honzon is Dainichi Nyorai. Emperor Shōmu ordered the building with Gyoki supposedly to build this one carving the 145cm tall Honzon. Later Kobo Daishi visited the temple in 815 carving statue of Yakushi Nyorai(healing buddha) from tree with hsi fingers(ouch). This one is held in the oku-no-in(inner temple) of this temple.

Boom!

Main hall.

Quite big complex. In olden days even bigger with 7 branch temples but the Meiji Buddhism-purge resulted in temple shrinking in power.

There was pilgrim/local around here that after sitting silently for a long time suddenly started chanting VERY loud. This kept going on and on and on and he was basically still doing this when I left sitting in same place. Curious. Never seen something like this. If he's pilgrim he's taking unusually long time in each temple. Or he could be here just for a visit.

Daishi hall.

After the temple routines and talking with some fellow pilgrims including couple foreigners I sat and thought about today's plan. Plan had been to simply go into the hotel after that but it was very early and hadn't walked that much yet plus tomorrow would be long day. I decided to do the temple #29 today already making tomorrows process easier. Rain had also picked up so I sighed and pulled out the rain coat and started the walk toward the next temple.

Beautiful sight! I love sight of cherry trees around rivers.

Path led through serious rice field area that seemed to go on forever. Okay so more like 2km but with field after field it sure felt like never ending!

More of same road.

And more. It's so wide and clear it's comparable to Finland. And Japan has fame of being crowded cities.

Finding rest hut plus toilet I gladly took another break here

And the road continues.

But eventually crossed train rails and turned left into new route.  I was close to the konbini I was aiming for.

Arriving to te next goal of konbini for a quick lunch at a family martin with unusually large rest area outside. Oh and also area inside but with all my stuff waiting outside went outside to eat couple nikuman and rice balls.

Took another look at map and noticed symbol that drew my eyes. Onsen! It was on route from here but I didn't want to go there right away. For one after that going to temple and lodging means good feelings goes away quicker in rain. For second after onsen I rarely feel like doing anything so simply getting to lodging will be tough!

So I gritted teeth and moved toward the Kokubunji(#29) with plan of backtracking back to the onsen. Adds bit to the distance but it's an onsen!

Getting to the temple #29 Kokubunji(State temple) I found it quite impressive with good garden. Wish it hadn't been raining!

Another of the state temples ordered by Emperor Shōmu and 2nd and last one I would be crossing this year. This one even received copies of suttra's(Buddha's teachings) Emperor had himself copied. Then later around 816 when Kobo Daishi was 42 years old he's said to have visited this temple.

Nio statues. They are so worn down that they need metal stapples in the middle to hold them together.

These statues can be seen, as already should be evident from photos, in nearly all the temples in Japanese temples. They are also known as Golden Kings that prevents devils from approaching the temple grounds.

Nice park inside the temple compound!

Unusual temple in that while it was burned down during waring states period felling into disuse Chōsokabe, more known for burning down temples, restored this in 1558 when he converted to Buddhism.

Main hall.

Daishi hall.

Still while the temple was enjoyable(rain or not) eventually I had to headeback where I had came from and to the onsen.

Reaching onsen I left big backbag to the cashier and entered the onsen. Had hard time washing myself fully before entering the warm pools as they were so tempting! And it was GOOD! I especially liked the part where the pool was shaped into shape like reclining chair with bubbles coming strongly to your feet and lower back. Felt so GOOD!

Open air bath was also interesting with cold air and rain combined with steaming bath. And steaming waterfall was nice experience.

Local kids seems to have drawn these. Competition? Just for fun?

It was so nice time spent. Only problem was still having to walk into the lodging which was business hotel this time. Was sooooo tempted to call in taxi but in the end resisted and walked.

And good I did as whom did I run into but the women we had shared lodging last night! Yey! Chatting a while we eventually departed but as she would be staying next to temple 30 and I about 7km away from that. Good chance we'll meet again as I'm faster walker so sooner or later I should catch up with her.

I just had few km's to walk into the hotel greeting some school kids whose school was over on the way(unusual kids in that they greeted me. Usually kids don't dare to do that :D It's generally people form 20's onward who talk to me and 60's onward very talkative). Eventually settled into business hotel for relaxing night.

Next few days are going to be busier with close to 30km per day. Uhhuh. This is going to be the challenging part of this year.