Day Four: Temple 87 to 88

A confession: I skipped a temple.

Yesterday evening I was a tiny bit stressed about my accommodation. I didn’t book it directly, but through the AirBnB where I stayed the first night. Thus I had no written confirmation of my booking, and since it’s a holiday week, lots of places are full. If this place fell though, it might be tough to find something else.

So when I got to Temple 87, I just went right to my accommodation to see if I had a room. Plus I think the temple was about to close, so I was like, eh, I’ll go back tomorrow.

I shouldn’t have worried. Everything was fine and I checked in without incident.

The place itself was more like a hostel, with a shared kitchen and shared baths, and a dormitory-style room (though I had my own room). I spent some time chatting with folks in the common areas, which on paper should be something I like. I like talking to strangers and hearing their stories.

But I don’t know what it is about hostels, I feel a weird…inferiority complex? Impostor syndrome? What the hell am I doing here, I don’t belong here?

Plus everyone there seemed kinda intense about the day ahead. Knowing I’m the least experienced person, and with these folks taking it pretty seriously, I was like, hmm, I better get a move-on so I have enough time.

All of which is to say, the next morning I didn’t walk back to see 87.

I got a start around 7:30. Stopped at a convenience store to stock up on drinks and snacks. Then hit the road.

The first part was quite flat, and beautiful, and again gorgeous weather. Saw some greenhouses full of orchids (how do they get them all the bloom the same way at the same time??).

Watched a guy planting rice.

Enjoyed the scenery.

Walked on for awhile, and then I had to make a choice. The unpleasant but relatively easy walk along the road? Or the ~800 meter high hike over the mountains? The guide app said it was fine for “moderately experienced hikers.” Which, is, um, not me. But was I really going to skip the adventure?

Another factor was a bathroom location. I hadn’t passed anything since morning. There was a certain bathroom along the road. The mountain pass…just this “WC” on the signboard. But this bathroom didn’t show up on my app. It wasn’t in my guidebook. If I zoomed in on Google maps, I could see a building at this location. But would it have a bathroom? Again I decided to risk it.

Some shots along the walk

And I finally got to the spot where the WC was supposed to be. It didn’t seem promising…but as I looked a bit harder…what should I find…?

お手洗い！！ (you really have to zoom in.)

There was a guy there doing some lawn maintenance; we chatted for a bit and it turns out he studied in Utah.

Walking on, the path was certainly getting more challenging. To this point I hadn’t crossed paths with any other pilgrims. But then another woman appeared. I was ready to let her go by, but she suggested we walk together especially since the next section was supposed to be quite difficult. I warned her that I’m slow, and so Mariko from Switzerland and I set out for the top.

Her slow pace was still faster than I would have liked. But it also felt comforting to not be alone if the hike got really difficult.

And it indeed did get pretty difficult. Not ever super-scary, but definitely lots of scampering up steep rock paths. This picture is the closest I got to getting a shot of the trickier parts.

The last little bit had metal handles attached to the rock so you could pull yourself up.

But we made it!

From there, in retrospect we should have split up. She had a bus to catch and I had all day.

But we went down together for while, with her splitting off when she started to get short on time. I was happy to slow down and stopped for a bite and a drink at a beautiful overlook (for some reason I didn’t take any pictures).

I made my way down the last little bit to temple 88, arriving a bit after 1pm. So perhaps 5.5 hours to make the journey.

There I saw some familiar faces from the guest house and the trail, and it was fun to see so many folks in good spirits after competing the 88 temple circuit.

And then who should I see but my first henro dog!!?

Views of the temple

I saw this flame and thought it might be dedicated to pilgrims or Kukai, the monk who founded this type of Buddhism.

But wow, the translation of the plaque was even more powerful (to me):

Stopped for a late lunch of udon and a celebratory beer. How do Japanese people eat such big servings of noodles?? I just climbed a (small) mountain and I could eat only about half.

Checked in to my hotel, took a shower, walked back to the temple to take in the atmosphere.

Came back for dinner around 6pm. Had a nice chat with the other guest and the proprietor. Sadly a group of six foreign tourists cancelled on her that day, after she had already made dinner for them.

Don’t do that, foreign tourists!!