四国８８箇所冒険

Shikoku was great. A real adventure, but boy did it sure took a ton out of me. I arrived fresh and full of energy last Tuesday in the town of Naruto around 1 pm. It took about an hour or so to arrive at the first temple and from there the adventure started. On the first day I wasn't able to travel too far as I only had a few hours of daylight to walk, but I still managed to get to temple 5 before the day had ended.





















I was headed to temple 6 to try and find some dinner and a place to stay when I wandered into a small town and found a tiny okonomiyaki restaurant. I went in there for some dinner and got to talking with the lady who owned the place as well as a couple of guys who were in there as well. They asked me if I was here doing the temple tour and I said that I was. One of the guys said then that I would need more energy and bought me a yaki-udon and a okonomiyaki to take with me for the next day. The old lady also got me to sign an autograph for her at the insistence of the other guy who said that if I went to Tokyo I could probably get on tv and maybe get famous although I seriously doubt it. The guy who bought me the okomomiyaki then also was kind enough to give me a ride to temple 6. When we got there he told me to stay in the car for a bit while he went to talk to the monks. A few minutes later he came back with a monk who escorted me to the second floor of the main gate to the temple where I was allowed to sleep for free. I was floored by how nice all of these people that I had just met were to a complete stranger. It reminded me a lot of my childhood back in Ohio.











The next day I headed out from temple 6 and made it up until temple 11. When I got to temple 10 there was an old man there who was sweeping the stairs. As I passed him he stopped me and asked me if I knew the meaning behind the 99 stairs of the first staircase as well as the 333 stairs in total. I didn't, so he proceeded to give me a university quality lecture as well as guided tour of the temple. I learned so much in this one hour it was incredible. He then said he would meet me at temple 11 in a couple of hours and then introduce me to a place where I could stay for free and use an onsen.











The place he took me too was a little shanty style thing set up. They had a free washer and drier set up, but I didn't need to do any laundry. The onsen that was right beside the place was closed for the day he told me to get into the car and drove me up to an onsen around the area of temple 7. It was real nice to get clean and relax for a bit. Especially nice on the feet.











Day 3 started off early wakign up at 5:30 to hit what my magazine said is the hardest stretch of walking on the entire trip. The trip from 11 to 12 is 13 kilometers uphill, down, back up higher, down a bit more then back up to number 12. From 12 to 13 is 30 kilometers mostly downhill, but in actuality the downhill is tougher than the uphill. It puts a lot more strain on the knees when you've got a 30 pound back on your back. The walk from 11 to 12 is supposed to take 1 day then from 12 to 13 is another day. I did both in one day. On top of this it started raining at 8 am and didn't stop the entire day. Actually it wasn't just rain. There was a bit of hail and up at temple 12 it was actually snowing. A very miserable day and by the end my feet were destroyed and I was soaked to the bone. Miserable and not wanted to stay in the rain any longer I checked into a ryokan for the night. Best thing I did all day. Had a nice warm room with a comfortable futon. A fantastic dinner and breakfast and a nice bath to soak my broken legs in.















The next day I hit temple 14-17 then took the train west further into Tokushima prefecture and up to Kagawa prefecture. From there I went to temple 72-77 for a grand total of 23 out of 88 temples. The weather was gorgeous this day and I saw tons of nice cherry blossoms, mountain towns and other gorgeous scenery. Basically it was postcard Japan at it's finest. When I got into Kagawa I started at temple 75 which was by far the niceest out off all the temples that I had the chance to visit. They had a massive pagoda, and the temple itself was filled with so many gold statues and other buddhist symbols and imagery. Very nice and classy.















After temple 77 I took the nearby train and headed back to Kyoto arriving around midnight. Four very long days in Shikoku, but a fantastic adventure and an experience that I will always remember.