day 43, 8:20pm, done

i'm done!
the day went by so quickly. it was a lot to take in.

i made it to temple 1 at about 10:30am. it was pretty quiet (i think the bus tours start saturday). i went through my usual temple routine, got my stampbook stamped, got a few extra as souvenirs and that was it. there was no parade, no one to pat me on the back to say good job. i was just finished. it was a strange feeling. i didn't cry or anything like that. i spent a good 30min just sitting. it took a long time for reality to sink in.

at temple 1 i did get to speak to one of the monks there. he was very friendly and used to talking to and helping all of the foreign henro who visited the temple. he didn't provide the praise i may have been looking for. i imagine he's met thousands of people who have finished the pilgrimage. we talked about the weather and food.

i also saw a few henro at the temple who were just setting out. a few looked like they knew what they were getting into, others looked woefully underprepared. i would have liked to have given them some advice but even if i was fluent in japanese i still don't think i could give them any information that would be useful for them. experience is a much better teacher. they'll figure things out pretty quickly.

and then i left. i got on a train. i bought some souvenirs. i got on a bus. i got on another train and now i'm home. i don't feel like i've left the trail yet. my mind is still moving slowly, taking in one thing at a time, contemplating, as if i were still walking endlessly along a road somewhere.

i'm not quite ready to finish this blog yet. i'll need a few more posts to tie everything up. but i'd like to thank everyone who followed along and e-mailed me during my trip. it meant a lot to me to have that kind of support.

i'm going to call it a night,

day 42, 8:43pm, one more day

thank you everybody for the e-mails. lots of concern and congratulations for me.
well, i'm still feeling a little blah now and then but i'm having no problem holding my food down. i dreamed all day about going to a big salad bar. i could really use a salad. :)
and i haven't finished yet! i'll be closing the loop tomorrow; returning to temple 1.

i don't really know how i feel. today i took a route down that put me back on the trail i walked on my first day. it felt different even though i could remember the sites and the route.

the most interesting part was meeting henro who were going the other way, who had just started.
i wanted to stop and talk to them, to give them a bit of wisdom, but most of them were focused on reaching their next temple, on keeping up to their schedule.
i was like that the first day.

well, i didn't find a nice hut to stay, so i went for a hotel. it's my second last day so i'll treat myself.

i feel like i'd like to do the pilgrimage again, from tomorrow. it was difficult but there is an alure to a life that has such a simple purpose. eat, sleep, walk. i never once woke up in the morning without a sense of purpose. fatigue yes, despair sometimes, but there was always a simple solution, walk.

ok, getting a bit lost in thought and sleepy.

time for bed,
night,

day 41, 8:20pm, sun drunk

(out of phone service, late post)
the best way that i can describe today's experience is that i had a huge hangover.
i guess it makes sense. my body is low on water and electrolytes. so i spent the day drinking sports drinks and water. i was a little light on food, but i managed to have a decent sized dinner.

i'm not staying at a hotel tonight, but i am at a shelter next to an onsen. i've gotten cleaned up and i've taken a long cool shower and a long cool bath.

i think it's finally over and i'll be sure to drink lots tomorrow.

i don't think i'll make temple 1 tomorrow. i chose comfort over distance tonight.

snake count 29!
and i saw some monkeys, but that's another story.

later,

day 41, 12:03pm, heat stroke or heat exhaustion

i keep getting those two mixed up, but i think i'm suffering from the least severe of the two. :)

finished yesterday feeling tired. after i settled in for the night i started to feel a bit sick. i had no desire to eat or drink. i forced myself to eat and drink but it didn't make me feel any better.
i was hot. my head was radiating heat like i'd gotten a bad sunburn. and i was having to go to the toilet every 20min.
so i forced myself to drink as much as i could and i wiped myself down with cold water during every washroom trip.
to top things off, i developed a really bad headache. needless to say that with all of the toilet trips, the upset stomach and the headache i couldn't get to sleep.
finally, i decided to take a couple tylenol 3s, the strong painkillers i had brought for emergencies. they did the trick. i got some sleep last night and i've been able to drink water without feeling sick.

i'm taking it easy today. it's much cooler today but my appetite still hasn't come back (not even for ice-cream, scary!).

oh, and i'm at temple 88 now. it's nice but my experience has been soured a bit by the encounter i just had at the temple stamp office. i asked if i could get a stamp on some washi paper so that i could frame it as a picture. the stamp guy wouldn't do it and he was very... terse with me about it.

oh well. what can you do?

i'm going to see if i can stay at a minshiku tonight. i think i could really use the airconditioning and a cool shower tonight.

no worries though, despite the drama that i may inject into my posts, i'm ok.

later,

day 40, 12:19pm, tourists

i'm getting a bit behind on the posts.
i think priorities change after a while. i no longer feel so alone on the road. and i slept beside, none other than... \3M obosan last night! we must have almost the exact same pace. i've had some walking partners on this trip, but the relationship lasts usually for only a day or two.

but i'm getting ahead of my self.
yesterday was a lot of city walking two big hills. i got all of my errands done (prizes are in the mail) and i got to play the tourist for awhile.

the first big hill was yashima, which included temple 84, a national park, a historical park and a bunch of other things i didn't really get to see. it was the most touristy temple on the trail so far. on top of the bus henro, there were also bus tours going through.
while i was sitting having a drink, about 20 people came up to ask me the standard questions (henro?, country?, how' japan?). i had a few pictures taken with some people. some people took pictures of me reading sutras. it was just overwhelming. one man came up to talk to me while i was reading a sutra at the hondo, but i just blocked him out of my mind in true zen fashion. he realized his mistake and waited until i was done, and then asked me the usual questions. :)

it was a nice place. it's also the site of a battlefield from the genpei war. i'd like do a bit more reading about that. the displays were interesting but i can't read japanese above a grade 2 level. :)

temple 85 was nice. it had a cable car which i didn't take. of course the trail makes you walk right by the ticket office. that's torture it is.

i'm at temple 87 now. stopping for lunch and deciding on a place to stay tonight.

it's hot. :)

later,

day 38, 9:15pm, getting cleaned up

everything is alright again. i'm clean, i'm dry, my gear is dry and i'm sleeping indoors tonight. and i think it's all because of a friendly woman at temple 83.
when i rolled into temple 83, i was looking (and probably smelling) pretty rough. a woman working at the temple came over to ask the usual questions and to give me a couple candies. we talked about the weather and i told her i was camping out. she wanted to know if i was alright after last night's storm. it was a fairly regular conversation (my japanese small talk has improved a lot).
i went through my temple routine and by the time i got to the stamp office i'm pretty sure all the other temple staff had heard all about me from the woman i had talked to.
the monk doing the stamp and calligraphy didn't accept my money and said it was osettai. he asked if i needed a place to stay. it was a bit early to stop but i asked if he knew of any good places. he gave me a map for a zenkonyado near the temple.
i decided to stop and get my things sorted out. so my gear is good, i had another lovely udon dinner, i picked up some supplies, and i got a haircut (feels great).
i guess i'm ready for my last week on the trail.

snake count +1 (have to check the count)
a notable experience today. the henro trail went right through the middle of the gardening center of a large DIY hardware store. i thought that was kind of cool.

night,