Shikoku Day 1 - Temples One to Five

No.	Temple	City	Prefecture	Notes
1	Ryōzenji (霊山寺)	Naruto	Tokushima
2	Gokurakuji (極楽寺)	Naruto	Tokushima
3	Konsenji (金泉寺)	Itano	Tokushima
4	Dainichiji (大日寺)	Itano	Tokushima (oops, skipped)
5	Jizōji (地蔵寺)	Itano	Tokushima

Total listed miles between temples visited according to guidebook: 6.2 kilometers (3.853 miles)

Total mileage on iphone: 6.4 

The packs, which were manageable yesterday, became nearly intolerable when water and food were added. We managed to get them on and walk quietly to Temple 1 with our hostess. She showed us how to perform the temple rituals which include:

- purify hands and mouth with water

- sound the gong

- light a candle at the main temple

- light three sticks of incense and place in a vessel filled with sand

- recite heart sutra

- climb up the main temple steps, give coin offering, place ofuda in the box

- repeat all but water purification and gong at the second, Kobo Daishi temple

Okay, there are ideas and words that I have not defined. I hope that as I have more understanding, explanations will follow. 

After being escorted to Temple 1, time to move on to 2! And of course we are immediately pointed in the wrong direction. Fortunately Laura looked at the map and decided this was wrong, so moved onto the actual trail. But soon, again, we were thrown off course. Oddly, in some places there were signs every few feet, but at forks in the road or intersections, none. We did eventually make our way to two and three, both stunningly beautiful. 

Pagoda temple 1

It was at Kosenji, at a picnic table of several westerners, we decided to skip the hike to Temple 4 and go straight to 5. The packs are too heavy! My hip hurts, my Achilles heel hurts, ow, and so on. And so it was, we were able to fine a bilingual guide to make reservations at a minshuko for the night, right outside temple 5.

Daikon growing in many of the gardens we passed

Minshuko are modest Japanese guest houses that offer a room with two meals.  Ours included a Japanese bath,laundry, and a good-sized tatami room. Hurrah, they serve tea on arrival and offer a Japanese bath. Dinner was generous with seven or eight (?) dishes plus rice. We sat with two French Canadian Women and two Japanese women. Conversation was sparse due to the language gap. It was hard to talk to the Canadians while ignoring the Japanese guests. At any rate, the meal was delicious!

At minshuko 

Tomorrow we try to beat both of our theoretical and actual times with a goal of Temple 8.