The good news is that there was a Family Mart with indoor seating close to my sleeping place, so at first light (roughly 4:30 am) I packed up and headed over there for a taste of civilization. By this point, I had figured out how to handily circumvent their Wi-Fi limitations (FM gives you 3 20-minute sessions per day, the other two major chains give you 2 1-hour long sessions). Essentially, I cleared the cookies on my computer and used a second email address, allowing me up to an hour of computer internet time and an hour of phone internet time.
It was well after 7am by the time I hobbled over to the first temple for the day. Zentsui, the eponymous town which grew around a major temple and supposed birthplace of the guy who started this whole 88-temple pilgrimage thing over 1100 years ago, is small and densely packed with temples. So, I had a busy morning. I dumped my luggage and headed half a click up the hill to the next temple, which I later learned had been moved down into the valley when it had previously sat some 500 meters above on a steep cliff.
Swinging back into the first temple to grab my suitcase, I saw a familiar backpack, and stopped to chat a few moments with the German guy. Apparently, a Japanese man saw him walking along and invited him to stay the night at his home, prepared a special vegetarian dinner for him, and drove him there in the morning. WTF. Pro-tip for doing the pilgrimage. Don’t talk to anyone else unless you enjoy dealing with the feelings of deep unfairness in the universe.
I dragged my stuff along to the next temple, and took a somewhat longish route (properly following the walking signs) to the namesake temple. Zentsui-ji is enormous occupying two city blocks, either of which would make for an enormous temple. The grounds were overrun by tourists, and hawkers lined the alleyway between the two campuses, selling roasted octopus, fried chicken, and ice cream. It was a total circus, and I started looking around for money changers to whip. I ran into the German guy again at this temple. Of course, he would catch up to me as I walk so slow.
It was still fairly early, but I swung by a supermarket to get a cheap lunch on the way to the last temple in the town. I ate on a bench outside the supermarket and enjoyed a sugary iced latte from a bottle. After the next temple, there was a long walk to my final temple of the day. Just before I reached it, a little old man called out to me from his home to stop me and hand me a little clay figurine making the prayer gesture. I got the sense that he spends his afternoons perched at the front window watching for henro.
Looking over my resources on the walk, I knew of a pilgrim hut in the next town over (Muragame). It was another fairly longish walk away, but getting there would situate me to possibly do a little sightseeing in the morning before continuing on (there was a well preserved city castle and a museum dedicated to paper fans). However, as I pulled into town and found the hut, I was disappointed by the prospects of sleeping there. Firstly it was right on the road, more like a bus stop bench than a partially sheltered space. Secondly, there were two old men sitting on each of the benches. One was listening to a radio through headphones. The other, clearly a homeless man, drinking a small bottle of shochu (alcohol). This was the first place that felt like a city since I had left Matsuyama, and I couldn’t count on the just leaving my stuff unprotected. Perhaps I was a bit biased, but I also worried about how safe it would be to sleep there.
So, I took a walk around town, deciding to look for somewhere else, possibly indoors to sleep. I inquired at one hotel and balked at the 9000 yen price. Heading to the train station to ask at the tourist information desk, I bumped into another henro who was stuffing a bag into a coin locker. He didn’t really speak English and whatever Japanese I had learned prior to starting the pilgrimage was basically burned up by the exertion of walking so many days. Nevertheless, I conveyed that I had nowhere to sleep and he was determined to help me. We went to the tourist desk together and asked. It was Friday night and Muragame was hosting a festival involving the castle over the weekend. That explained the renao (bustling crowds) I saw when I looked down the street heading to the castle. Eventually, they recommended I go on to the next town and sleep in an onsen there. I had actually seen an advertisment for the onsen (in English) at the last temple. Apart from holidays, they offer a special rate for henro.
Welcoming the opportunity for a bath and indoor sleeping, I took the train one stop, hobbled over to a grocery store, and ate a huge meal. I was able to charge up, and spent a bit of time reviewing Japanese. Towards the end of my meal, a middle aged man handed me a bottle of tea as an osettei.
The onsen wasn’t far away, though it was dark by that point. It was very crowded. I left my walking stick in the umbrella stand, put my shoes in the shoe locker, and went up to the counter. The giant boards explaining the pricing in Japanese confused the hell out of me, and the guy who checked me in neither spoke English nor pulled out anything written in English to show me. Fortunately, I had gotten a coupon from the Muragame tourist info desk, and handed that over. I was given towels, pajamas, a toothbrush, and razor, and they took my suitcase off my hands. I wasn’t able to confirm the price at the time, so I was worried I would end up getting nickled and dimed (except with 100 and 500 yen coins!).
The baths were very nice. The highlight was a pool with Chinese medicine, and the sauna (which closed early) had a guy working inside fanning people to encourage more sweating. There were also a carbolic acid pool and an electric current pool, so I guess those aren’t as rare and unique a thing as I thought. I soaked well, but was conscious not to over soak my feet because the worst thing that could happen would be to break open all my foot blisters. After bathing the second time and shaving, I got ready for bed and explored the two floors of common space to check out the sleeping situation.
Some premium areas required an extra charge, but mostly it was a free-for-all across three or four rooms. One room had recliners, two rooms with sliding doors had mats. Generally speaking, everyone checks in, grabs all the blankets, a couple books from the manga library and reserves spaces before the bathe. I was stuck with pretty much nothing. I found an employee straightening up the sleeping spaces (in order to squeeze my people in to rows on the floor eventually) and asked about blankets. He got me a set, and I laid them down on a floor and went to sleep. I was lucky I always travel with my own pillow. It was very warm at first, but cooled off in the middle of the night. Nevertheless, it felt like a real luxury compared to my previous week.
36200 steps for the day.
| Family Mart breakfast | 632 |
| Temple (Noukyosho) * 6 | 1800 |
| Supermarket Lunch | 864 |
| Train ticket | 160 |
| Supermarket Dinner | 923 |
| Total: | 4379 JPY (280.25 RMB) (USD 41.38) |
Running Total: 28522.75 RMB (USD 4211.67)
Daily Average: 297.1 RMB (USD 43.87)
Wow, I really ate a lot that day. I started the day out with a donut (as usual at this point), but supplemented with a banana, orange juice, and yogurt to be a little healthier. At lunch, I had some rice balls and a combo tray of kimchi (a little sweeter in Japan than Korea) plus a big chunk of steamed cake. For dinner, I went hog wild on the discounted items, picking up everything 20-30% off: curry rice, a package of three mixed vegetable croquettes, a green smoothie, a salad, and some sort of chocolate chip butter roll for dessert.