Tuesday, March 28, 2017

Day 4, Walking Between 12 and 13

Guidebook miles: 22.4 km (13.9)
actual miles: 14.0
Entrance to temple 12, Shojan-Ji to entrance of temple 13, Dainiichiji

No actual temple visits.

The snow had melted when we awoke at 5:30 am. The temple staff came around with breakfast at 6:40 am. The Japanese breakfast is so healthy and refreshing, the vegetarian meal included a hearty miso soup, a boiled egg, burdock, pickled daikon, rice, and seaweed. Knowing we had 13 miles, we headed out at 7:44 am, our earliest departure yet.



Much of our trip was downhill through bamboo and pine forests. We saw some shelf mushrooms (red-belted polypore, to be precise) and some unusual piles of scat. Big piles, an animal toilet for wild boar, which are common on the island. I was hoping they were monkey scat, but wild boar is okay, too.




We received Ossettai of Mikan in a village, and walked and walked. We eventually hit an urban area, and walked and walked. We finally found our minshuku at 4:00 pm. It only took seven hours to do the four-to-six hour walk.

The Minshuku was a relief, though shoddy and small compared to our first night.





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