day 16, 8:52pm, onsen!

i made it! and in good time. i had lots of time to clean, resupply and have a bath.

the onsen has a \2500 deal which includes the onsen, laundry and stay in a dormitory style room.

there is one other henro staying with me. shingo, he's 25 and from ehime-ken, the next prefecture on the pilgrimage. we talked all evening and even had dinner at the restaurant together.
he's met "spent \3,000,000 on wine and womem" obo-san. i guess he's just a couple days ahead.

well, i'm snug in my futon tonight. today was a 37km day, tomorrow should be about the same the way accomodations are lining up.

night all

day 16, 10:51am, slurpee!

it may not seem like a big thing but it's a big thing. slurpee drinks are difficult to find in japan. and on a hot day! and it's mango.

i'm in a good mood now. :)
i'll be arriving at temple 37 in an hour or so. and if i have the energy to keeping up the pace to make it another big day, there is an onsen (hotspring) waiting for me.

catch you later

day 15, 7:58pm, back to reality

(phone service isn't great, so it may be a late post)

last night was wonderful. i had lots of katsuo (bonito) and other popular dishes from the area. i was so full.

i managed to stay past my normal 9pm bed time, but i was ready around 10pm.

they rolled a futon out for me and let me sleep over. in the morning there was breakfast and a packed lunch. i didn't get going until 9:15am.
thank you arito family. you were so very kind.

so, i was back on the road. it was a beautiful day but it starting to get really hot. it was a long hot day.

not much happened today. i walked. it was hot. i bumped into a few familiar henro faces.

really tired, todax,28.9kn
night,

day 14, 6:17pm, home sweet home

i made it to temples 35 and 36 today. today is a bit easier because i'm stopping in usa-cho tonight.
my friend takashi, whom i often go camping with, comes from usa-cho and his parents have invited me over for dinner.
if i'm lucky the might offer me a shower, and if they're lucky i'll take one. :)
it looks like it will be a nice night.

day 14, 1:21pm, tunnel!

it's a tunnel, 837m. i'm going to sing!i've been practicing all day. (^O^)/

day 13, 9:27pm, more biwa!

today went fairly well considering i pushed myself hard yesterday. my feet were a bit sore.

today i covered temples 30 through 34; 28.3km in all. tonight i'm staying at temple 34. they have a small room with a shower that they let out free of charge to walking henro. it's very nice.

i received more biwa today, about 2 kg of them. there's a bit of a story to it.
i had just finished lunch and i was heading over to the ferry to make my way across the port to temple 33. on the way, i met up with another henro, an older woman who i had met a few times on the trail earlier in the day. she too was headed to the ferry.

while we were walking, we ended up missimg a turn. no worries though, as a woman came out of her yard to give us directions. she started walking us back to the intersection, when we noticed an elderly man on a bicycle yelling at us from the intersection we had just missed.

he was something else. he looked like an 80 year old huckleberry finn; floppy wide brimmed hat, oversized overalls, no shoes.

well, the woman and huck finn start arguing over the directions to the ferry. it lasts well over two minutes. the other henro and i attempt politely to make an escape. but then there is a truck who wants to get past, because, of course, we're all in the middle of the intersection.

so we move, and what does old huck finn do? in his haste, he jack-knifes his bicycle. and what was he carrying on his bicycle?... a 10 kg. box of biwa he'd been picking this morning and they go spilling all over the intersection.

the two women scream and frantically start picking up biwa. old huck finn starts shouting "don't worry about them, just leave them". i stand stunned. traffic builds, the truck driver doesn't look impressed.

the other henro pulls out some plastic bags to help speed the clean up. old huck finn nearly dumps his bike a second time. he's still arguing about directions.
after all is said and done, i'm holding a 2 kg. plastic bag of bruised biwa and huck finn is saying he doesn't need them. they're a gift, osettai.
i end up carrying that bag around for the rest of the day. the ferry ended up being only 500m away from the intersection.

that's my biwa story. it's late, time for bed.

night

day 13, 12:16pm, we have a winner!

thanks for the response on my song lyric request.

the 4th e-mail came in just a few minutes ago from bjarni walterson, my uncle in manitoba, canada.

i'll get a prize together right away.

and i'll start practice my singing,

currently on my way to temple 33.

later,

day 12, 9:59pm, long day

i finally got off the road at 7:15pm.
i'm at a henro rest hut. i'm tired. i am about 1km short of temple 30.

today's mileage, 39.4km.

also it looks like some people are interested in the snake count. none today, but i did see one yesterday. i think that makes 5 snakes.

night

day 12, 1:40pm, one of today's tunnels

day 12, 1:31pm, tunnel singing

i've gone through a lot of tunnels the last few days. the frirst was just after temple 22, on highway 55. the longest of them, i think was 900m.

i'm not sure why but since the very first tunnel, i've enjoyed singing in them. the echo is great, but there is something else to it that really feels great.

i sing the same song in every tunnel. the problem is i don't know any of the words. i don't even know the name of the song, just the chorus. and in a 900m tunnel, that is a lot of choruses.

so i have a favour, can someone check the internet for the song lyrics and e-mail them to me?
we'll make it a contest. o(^-^)o

the 4th person to e-mail the lyrics will get a prize!

the song's chorus is something like,
"come mister tallyman, and talley me bananas, daylight come and me want to go home"

there you are,
good luck and i look forward to some e-mails,

later

day 12, 1:33pm, 23km before lunch

i'm feeling great today. the rain and wind were not that bad last night, and i got a good sleep.

i set out early today. it was raining a bit until 11am but from aki city to konan city there was a great bike path that got me off the highway for the whole morning.

i really enjoyed the walk. i passed a lot of greenhouses full of tomatoes, eggplants and red peppers, so when i passed by a farmers market around noon i just had to get some vegetables for a salad.

so right now i'm eating a big fresh salad with some tofu (for protein!) and dressing.

i'm off to temples 28 and 29 today. also, i think i have a free place to stay tonight which has showers and a washing machine, so i really am feeling great.
thanks for the e-mails everybody, keep them coming.
<pic>the bike path

day 11, 8:30pm, biwa!

biwa. the fruit in the picture. they are in season, in kochi, and they are cheap and plentiful. this also makes them popular osettai. i've had 54 of them over the last 3 days.

there good. texture is like soft melon, the flavour... it's hard to describe, but the sometimes have a crabapple tartness to them.

they've been a nice treat.

day 11, 8:14pm, looking good

last night worked out fine, tonight is going good. i think things are looking up. i should be in kochi city in a few days.

i'm sleeping at a michi-no-eki (road station). i and another henro have staked out some space under the covered patio. it's pretty well protected, but a typhoon is passing by shikoku tonight, so we'll see how it goes.

today i did 28km (including a mountain), and i could have done more. i have no more major aches and today is the first day i didn't tape up my feet. i think i'm in "the zone", i think everything physical will be ok from here on out. mentally,... we'll see.

i've lost weight, too! my legs are as hard as rock. i wonder what another 30 days will do.

day 10, 8:36pm, in the doldrums

i was feeling kind of down today.

i think it's because i did a lot of detailed planning covering the first week, or up to temple 24, and i left the rest to "plan as i go".

well, i'm now in the "plan as i go" phase and all i can see is 30 days of "not knowing where i'm going to sleep" ahead of me.

on top of that someone took my temple stamp book waterproof case that i made for my trip. it took me about three hours to make it. i was surprised how much the loss of the case effected me emotionally. i spent the morning thinking on that. it was a good lesson in impermanence.

today i visited temples 24, 25, and 26. it was a 29.4km day.
tomorrow i visit temple 27. yeay! another nansho mountain.

the picture is temple 26's hondo building, it's quite a nice one.

later,