It is Tuesday 27 March and we are walking the road out of
Tokushima. We have spent a pleasant couple of days here and feel refreshed and
ready for the next stage. The walk is such that the first 17 temples take one almost
back to the start so it feels a bit like a training session. Now we are setting off on the more committing long walk south to the first of Shikoku’s
two capes, Cape Muroto.
We make a small detour along highway number 210 to visit Japan’s smallest mountain, Mount Benten. We are feeling energetic after our rest day so we triumphantly climb the mountain which is all of 6.1 metres.
We reach Temple 18, Onzanji, in good time and sit for a while enjoying the peace of the temple grounds. The path on to Temple 19 takes us through orange groves and bamboo woods. At temple 19, Tatsueji, two women come over to talk to us. One of them passes us a large bag of satsumas and we accept gratefully and exchange pleasantries, as much as our limited Japanese allows.
‘How old are you?’ one of them asks. (This is a question that is often asked in Japan, there is no reticence here on the subject as there is in the UK. I wonder what the reaction would be if I asked the same question there.)
'54,’ I say.
‘I’m only 53, Mick interjects, hastily.
‘I am 78 she says proudly. And my friend is 81.’ We exclaim in surprise at this, and the surprise is genuine. But then, many people in Japan seem to age remarkably well.
The temple is beautiful and especially now, with sprays of pale pink cherry blossom adorning the ancient temple buildings. There are a few other pilgrims here now, many of whom we recognise from previous encounters and we share the fruit with them. This is only partly altruistic - although the fruit is delicious we don't really want to carry 15 satsumas for too long.
After Tatsueji we walk along roads across a plain between the moumtains. A kingfisher flashes irredescent blue as it skims the water of a small river in which turtles are bobbing up and down like corks.
As we pass a guesthouse (minshoku) the owner, who is in the garden, calls out to us to stop a moment. She comes over with a bottle of juice and a box of tissue holders she has made herself and urges us to choose one each. We thank her and admire them, and give her a nameslip. I have learned that it is best to have some of these pre-written out so that if we are given a gift (osettai), we can, as is the custom, give a nameslip in return without faffing about trying to write one out on the spot.
At Katsuura there is a doll festival going on and there were displays of dolls all along the street. Even the local garage has joined in and dolls even adorn the dashboards of vans on the forecourt and decorate the post box of the local post office.
We are planning to spend the night at a ‘michi-no-eki (road station). These are a bit like UK service stations except unlike UK service stations there is no threat of a fine if you stay for more than three hours, on the contrary, many Japanese motorists use these to stay for the night. It is not unusual to see people with their picnic table and chairs out in the morning having their breakfast. What a shame our services don’t do the same. Camping at these places is generally acceptable provided you set up only after everyone has gone home for the night and are packed up before they open in the morning.
Behind the buildings is a long row of cherry trees which are lit by paper lanterns, creating a beautiful effect. We stroll along the avenue a short way. A man stops and tells us that this is called yokakura.
We set up our tent at the back of the michi-no-eki along with another henro who arrives just after we do. We manage a few words together before we all bed down for the night. When we get up at 6.30 the next morning he has already gone.
We work up to today’s task by brewing a coffee before finally setting off. Getting going early in the morning is something we need to work on. Today (Wednesday) is going to be a another mountain day. Temples 20 and 21 are both situated near the top of mountains, the first at 550 metres and the second at 610 metres. Unfortunately for us walking pilgrims, to get from one to the other it is necessary to descend back down to a river at a height of a mere 40 metres before ascending the next mountain.
Although the nights are still cold, not far above freezing, the days are warming up and today is around 21 degrees, quite warm enough to be climbing mountains with 10kg packs on our backs. We are only able to climb the second one by stopping every other minute for a quick rest. Despite the steep climbs, the trails are magnificent, they make the long stretches walking on asphalt/tarmac worthwhile.
Temple 20 is Kakurinji which means 'crane forest temple', because of the story that Kukai found a small statue of Jizo here being guarded by cranes which feature in many of the statues and carvings at the temple. From the temple you can gaze across the turquoise river flowing far below at the seemingly impenetrable forested mountain opposite.
The path down the mountain is steep and hard on the knees. Near the bottom is a disused school and there is a sign here to indicate that pilgrims can use the toilets which are maintained and cleaned by volunteers. It would also make a great place to camp but we press on.
By the time we reach the second temple, 21, Tairuji, we are feeling pretty fatigued. Most pilgrims, the ones who are not walking around but driving, use the ropeway (cable car) to get up and down – the road is so steep and narrow that it is not recommend to drive up here. Mick has promised me an ice-cream - he is sure that they sell them at the ropeway station at the top.
'Ooh yes, lovely', I say and we trot over. They don't sell ice-cream at the shop. But we are offered a cup of mushroom tea and we drink it gratefully.
We know that there is nowhere else to buy any food we stop tonight so we need get some provisions. Aside from heavy boxes of glazed sweets the only thing on offer is pot noodle soups so we stock up on these before making the steep descent down the old road. We can't read the labels so I buy one with green writing which I guess is vegetable and one with brown writing which I guess is chicken (in fact it turns out to be curry flavour).
Temple 21, Tairuji, is a wonderful temple. Set amongst huge redwood trees, high on the mountain, it is a mystical place. The buildings are spread out amongst the trees and we have an hour here just relaxing and wandering around the site before setting off on the winding road down the mountain.
Half an hour or so after descending the mountain from Temple 21 we come to another road station and decide to camp there – no sooner have we settled down then another henro turns up - the same chap who we camped next to the previous night. He elects to sleep in the doorway, we set up camp on the side of the building. The next morning he calls out ‘Ohio goziamasu’- good morning – to us before he disappears off. We say ‘see you later’ in Japanese and wonder if we will. It is strange how on this walk you can see the same people on and off for a few days then never cross paths with them again.
Thursday’s walk to Byodoji, Temple 22, is a delight. I am feeling bleary, the traffic last night had been noisy late into the night and someone had made a heck of a din going to the toilet in the middle of the night. But the walk through the woods and over One Pass is a delight and dispels my early morning fogginess.
Rather than continue walking down Route 55 towards Hiwasa, we decide to take the coastal route. We had a moment of panic when we reach Yuki at 4.00 in the afternoon and discover that the supermarket marked on the map has closed down but after some enquiries we discover it has moved to the other side of the town. After stocking up on provisions we head to Tainohama Beach and set up camp on a viewing platform with just a road between us and the ocean. The setting is idyllic. Or at least it is until the wind gets up in the middle of the night. The outer tent, which is not pegged down, flaps wildly in the wind, and by the morning the large carton of orange juice we had left on the table next to us has flung itself down the outside of the tent.
In the morning it is too windy on the platform to brew coffee so we are grateful for the two cans of coffee that a local chap gave us last night. At least the wind means that the temperature stays cool throughout the morning as we follow the coast road to Hiwasa.
Hiwasa is famous for the turtles which come on to the beach here to lay eggs every year, and the turtle motif is everywhere; even the phone box is a turtle. We arrive at midday and as we are both feeling distinctly grubby as are our clothes we decide to take a half day here and get some essential cleaning done. We pop into a convenience store first for a coffee and while we are there a couple come in with their three children. We get talking to them and discover that they are cycling around Japan on two tandems and camping as they go. This impresses us immensely and when we discover that the last cycling trip the five of them took was 9 months cycling across Asia we are even more impressed. We chat to them for a while and are sorry to see them go, they are an inspiration.
On to essential ablutions. The michi-no-eki at Hiwasa has a warm
footbath so we soak our weary feet for a while. Our clothes are pretty grubby now after 10 days on the road. (Eating a curry pot noodle with chopsticks while wearing a white jacket had not been a great idea.) We trot up to the coin
laundry and chuck everything in except our raingear which we wear while the
clothes are washing. Next the onsen to give our bodies a good clean up and Mick
treats himself to the first shave he has had since leaving Osaka, before
finally visiting the beautiful Temple 23, Yakuoji with its distinctive and
colourful pagoda. Here we bump into Harry again, a Japanese man who lives in
New York and whom we had been meeting periodically ever since Temple 6. He tells
us he was born just a few miles away from Hiwasa and was going to stay with his
brother that night. Meanwhile we head over to a patch of grass next to the michi-no-eki
to set up for the night.
It is our 11th consecutive night in the tent. According to the official guidebook we have walked 155 kilometres.
It is 05.30am on Saturday 01 April. The staff at the michi-no-eki are already setting up for the day so we emerge bleary-eyed from our tent and stagger over the road to the convenience store and grab a coffee. By 06.30 we are on the road, and walking down the Minami-Awa Sun Line, a fabulous and quiet road which travels for 18km high above the Pacific Ocean. Quiet except for the motorbikes which occasionally roar past that is. We reach the next town of Mugi by lunchtime.
This is where we make decisions which in hindsight were not the best.
Mistake No. 1. Having already walked 20km with 10kg backpacks, as it was only lunchtime we decide to walk on to the next town, another 10km down the road.
Mistake No. 2 We decide not to carry any food as we know there are stores in the next town and figure we can eat there.
We walk on for a couple more hours. At Asakawa the route diverts off the main Route 55 and through the town.
Mistake No. 3. Leaving Asakawa we do not pay sufficient attention to the map and rather than walk down the main road we are now on a parallel road without realising it.
Mistake No. 4 We come across a lovely area with toilets which is perfect for camping but decide to walk on to the convenience store as we have no food, reasoning that we can always walk back here for the night. At this stage we do not realise we are on the wrong road.
Mistake No.5 When, a couple of kilometres on, we realise our navigational error, instead of returning to the place mentioned above we correct our route and walk on to the convenience store. By this time we have gone too far to turn back so we walk on in search of somewhere to camp. By the time we have found a suitable spot, we have walked over 30km in total and have been walking for 12 hours.
In our defence we are tired but not in agony so we figure we will just walk a shorter walk the following day to recover a little.
In the morning I try to get out of the tent and discover that my legs will not allow me to stand up. After a couple of hours we walk slowly back to the nearest town. It takes me an hour to walk three kilometres and I am staggering as I walk. There will be no walking the pilgrimage today.
We make a small detour along highway number 210 to visit Japan’s smallest mountain, Mount Benten. We are feeling energetic after our rest day so we triumphantly climb the mountain which is all of 6.1 metres.
We reach Temple 18, Onzanji, in good time and sit for a while enjoying the peace of the temple grounds. The path on to Temple 19 takes us through orange groves and bamboo woods. At temple 19, Tatsueji, two women come over to talk to us. One of them passes us a large bag of satsumas and we accept gratefully and exchange pleasantries, as much as our limited Japanese allows.
‘How old are you?’ one of them asks. (This is a question that is often asked in Japan, there is no reticence here on the subject as there is in the UK. I wonder what the reaction would be if I asked the same question there.)
'54,’ I say.
‘I’m only 53, Mick interjects, hastily.
‘I am 78 she says proudly. And my friend is 81.’ We exclaim in surprise at this, and the surprise is genuine. But then, many people in Japan seem to age remarkably well.
The temple is beautiful and especially now, with sprays of pale pink cherry blossom adorning the ancient temple buildings. There are a few other pilgrims here now, many of whom we recognise from previous encounters and we share the fruit with them. This is only partly altruistic - although the fruit is delicious we don't really want to carry 15 satsumas for too long.
After Tatsueji we walk along roads across a plain between the moumtains. A kingfisher flashes irredescent blue as it skims the water of a small river in which turtles are bobbing up and down like corks.
As we pass a guesthouse (minshoku) the owner, who is in the garden, calls out to us to stop a moment. She comes over with a bottle of juice and a box of tissue holders she has made herself and urges us to choose one each. We thank her and admire them, and give her a nameslip. I have learned that it is best to have some of these pre-written out so that if we are given a gift (osettai), we can, as is the custom, give a nameslip in return without faffing about trying to write one out on the spot.
At Katsuura there is a doll festival going on and there were displays of dolls all along the street. Even the local garage has joined in and dolls even adorn the dashboards of vans on the forecourt and decorate the post box of the local post office.
We are planning to spend the night at a ‘michi-no-eki (road station). These are a bit like UK service stations except unlike UK service stations there is no threat of a fine if you stay for more than three hours, on the contrary, many Japanese motorists use these to stay for the night. It is not unusual to see people with their picnic table and chairs out in the morning having their breakfast. What a shame our services don’t do the same. Camping at these places is generally acceptable provided you set up only after everyone has gone home for the night and are packed up before they open in the morning.
Behind the buildings is a long row of cherry trees which are lit by paper lanterns, creating a beautiful effect. We stroll along the avenue a short way. A man stops and tells us that this is called yokakura.
We set up our tent at the back of the michi-no-eki along with another henro who arrives just after we do. We manage a few words together before we all bed down for the night. When we get up at 6.30 the next morning he has already gone.
We work up to today’s task by brewing a coffee before finally setting off. Getting going early in the morning is something we need to work on. Today (Wednesday) is going to be a another mountain day. Temples 20 and 21 are both situated near the top of mountains, the first at 550 metres and the second at 610 metres. Unfortunately for us walking pilgrims, to get from one to the other it is necessary to descend back down to a river at a height of a mere 40 metres before ascending the next mountain.
Although the nights are still cold, not far above freezing, the days are warming up and today is around 21 degrees, quite warm enough to be climbing mountains with 10kg packs on our backs. We are only able to climb the second one by stopping every other minute for a quick rest. Despite the steep climbs, the trails are magnificent, they make the long stretches walking on asphalt/tarmac worthwhile.
Temple 20 is Kakurinji which means 'crane forest temple', because of the story that Kukai found a small statue of Jizo here being guarded by cranes which feature in many of the statues and carvings at the temple. From the temple you can gaze across the turquoise river flowing far below at the seemingly impenetrable forested mountain opposite.
 |
| On the trail |
The path down the mountain is steep and hard on the knees. Near the bottom is a disused school and there is a sign here to indicate that pilgrims can use the toilets which are maintained and cleaned by volunteers. It would also make a great place to camp but we press on.
By the time we reach the second temple, 21, Tairuji, we are feeling pretty fatigued. Most pilgrims, the ones who are not walking around but driving, use the ropeway (cable car) to get up and down – the road is so steep and narrow that it is not recommend to drive up here. Mick has promised me an ice-cream - he is sure that they sell them at the ropeway station at the top.
'Ooh yes, lovely', I say and we trot over. They don't sell ice-cream at the shop. But we are offered a cup of mushroom tea and we drink it gratefully.
We know that there is nowhere else to buy any food we stop tonight so we need get some provisions. Aside from heavy boxes of glazed sweets the only thing on offer is pot noodle soups so we stock up on these before making the steep descent down the old road. We can't read the labels so I buy one with green writing which I guess is vegetable and one with brown writing which I guess is chicken (in fact it turns out to be curry flavour).
Temple 21, Tairuji, is a wonderful temple. Set amongst huge redwood trees, high on the mountain, it is a mystical place. The buildings are spread out amongst the trees and we have an hour here just relaxing and wandering around the site before setting off on the winding road down the mountain.
Half an hour or so after descending the mountain from Temple 21 we come to another road station and decide to camp there – no sooner have we settled down then another henro turns up - the same chap who we camped next to the previous night. He elects to sleep in the doorway, we set up camp on the side of the building. The next morning he calls out ‘Ohio goziamasu’- good morning – to us before he disappears off. We say ‘see you later’ in Japanese and wonder if we will. It is strange how on this walk you can see the same people on and off for a few days then never cross paths with them again.
Thursday’s walk to Byodoji, Temple 22, is a delight. I am feeling bleary, the traffic last night had been noisy late into the night and someone had made a heck of a din going to the toilet in the middle of the night. But the walk through the woods and over One Pass is a delight and dispels my early morning fogginess.
 |
| Refreshments at Temple 22 |
By the time we reach the temple I have
woken up properly.
Later that morning we join the busy Route 55 which involves
a steep climb up a path. As we arrived at the main road we are amazed to see,
just up a side road opposite, a troupe
of macaque monkeys. We watch them for a moment as they saunter off, the
parents keeping a wary eye on us all the while. I know from past experience not
to try and raise my camera to get a picture – last time we were in Japan I did
and as soon as I lifted my arm, they all ran screaming into the woods. They
clearly associate that action with danger.
Rather than continue walking down Route 55 towards Hiwasa, we decide to take the coastal route. We had a moment of panic when we reach Yuki at 4.00 in the afternoon and discover that the supermarket marked on the map has closed down but after some enquiries we discover it has moved to the other side of the town. After stocking up on provisions we head to Tainohama Beach and set up camp on a viewing platform with just a road between us and the ocean. The setting is idyllic. Or at least it is until the wind gets up in the middle of the night. The outer tent, which is not pegged down, flaps wildly in the wind, and by the morning the large carton of orange juice we had left on the table next to us has flung itself down the outside of the tent.
 |
| Tainohama Beach camp |
In the morning it is too windy on the platform to brew coffee so we are grateful for the two cans of coffee that a local chap gave us last night. At least the wind means that the temperature stays cool throughout the morning as we follow the coast road to Hiwasa.
 |
| Hiwasa |
Hiwasa is famous for the turtles which come on to the beach here to lay eggs every year, and the turtle motif is everywhere; even the phone box is a turtle. We arrive at midday and as we are both feeling distinctly grubby as are our clothes we decide to take a half day here and get some essential cleaning done. We pop into a convenience store first for a coffee and while we are there a couple come in with their three children. We get talking to them and discover that they are cycling around Japan on two tandems and camping as they go. This impresses us immensely and when we discover that the last cycling trip the five of them took was 9 months cycling across Asia we are even more impressed. We chat to them for a while and are sorry to see them go, they are an inspiration.
 |
| Turtle phone box |
 |
| Turtle Toilets |
 |
| Temple 23 |
It is our 11th consecutive night in the tent. According to the official guidebook we have walked 155 kilometres.
It is 05.30am on Saturday 01 April. The staff at the michi-no-eki are already setting up for the day so we emerge bleary-eyed from our tent and stagger over the road to the convenience store and grab a coffee. By 06.30 we are on the road, and walking down the Minami-Awa Sun Line, a fabulous and quiet road which travels for 18km high above the Pacific Ocean. Quiet except for the motorbikes which occasionally roar past that is. We reach the next town of Mugi by lunchtime.
This is where we make decisions which in hindsight were not the best.
Mistake No. 1. Having already walked 20km with 10kg backpacks, as it was only lunchtime we decide to walk on to the next town, another 10km down the road.
Mistake No. 2 We decide not to carry any food as we know there are stores in the next town and figure we can eat there.
We walk on for a couple more hours. At Asakawa the route diverts off the main Route 55 and through the town.
Mistake No. 3. Leaving Asakawa we do not pay sufficient attention to the map and rather than walk down the main road we are now on a parallel road without realising it.
Mistake No. 4 We come across a lovely area with toilets which is perfect for camping but decide to walk on to the convenience store as we have no food, reasoning that we can always walk back here for the night. At this stage we do not realise we are on the wrong road.
Mistake No.5 When, a couple of kilometres on, we realise our navigational error, instead of returning to the place mentioned above we correct our route and walk on to the convenience store. By this time we have gone too far to turn back so we walk on in search of somewhere to camp. By the time we have found a suitable spot, we have walked over 30km in total and have been walking for 12 hours.
In our defence we are tired but not in agony so we figure we will just walk a shorter walk the following day to recover a little.
In the morning I try to get out of the tent and discover that my legs will not allow me to stand up. After a couple of hours we walk slowly back to the nearest town. It takes me an hour to walk three kilometres and I am staggering as I walk. There will be no walking the pilgrimage today.
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