30th of August 2019 – A climb where pilgrims fall over backwards. The (local) weather predictions for Japan are very untrustworthy. Where they predicted more than 10cm of rain yesterday, there was barely a centimetre of rainfall. Tonight, it rained very heavily for a moment. Thankfully, it is almost dry when I wake up around 6:00. I slept very well tonight. Yesterday I put in earplugs and swallowed some paracetamol. That made me fall asleep quickly.
Breakfast at a picknick bench
After using the toilet and a short bit of laundry, I grab my things and go for breakfast at the picknick table outside. The Japanese man has just started cooking rice for his breakfast. We shortly greet each other and continue doing our own thing. I notice that he is wearing a worn-down coverall. Is he even a henro? He could very well be a builder. However, he is sleeping in a henro space.
Back on the trail early
I depart around half past six. The Spaniards are just waking up around that time. I wish them good travels and get going. The first three kilometres of today lead me back to temple 11. Around quarter past seven I make use of the pristine toilet next to the parking space. I am once again thankful for the cleanliness and tidiness of Japanese toilets!
Going up and up: where pilgrims fall over backwards
I get back on the route next to the temple gate. The path is narrow and leads me through some brush. Its incline increases steadily. It gets wet once again. It rains and it pours. That has me putting on my raincape and taking it off again continually. Irritating and hot, because the temperature rises quickly.
Walking and resting (repeat)
Along the route I regularly encounter spaces where you can take a little rest. I use them often. Occasionally, a henro leaves the bench just when I arrive. We mumble a greeting, and he continues. The climbing is intense. Mountainsides are very steep here and it takes a lot of energy to climb them with my full pack. I am not used to this, coming from the flat Netherlands.
View over Tokushima
When I reach the first peak, I enjoy the view and send a picture to Katja. It is amazing to look out over Shikoku like this, despite the island being obscured from sight by low-hanging clouds.
The first decent
I descend a mountain ridge. It gives me the feeling of being the king of the mountains. On both sides of the path, there are mountainsides sloping down steeply. Beautiful to see, nice to walk down. Until, out of nowhere, a hornet flies at me. It keeps buzzing around me annoyingly so it can enjoy my sweat. I do not look forward to being stung by a hornet and try to shake the critter off. I fail in my attempt.
Learning to accept
Eventually, I realise that that hornet will stay in the vicinity anyway. I might as well accept it and ensure that it doesn’t sting me. This saves me a lot of energy. Another wise lesson learned on the route; if you cannot get things under control, accept them, adapt to them, and don’t invest energy into it.
During a moment of rest, I take a picture of the hornet on my trousers. Shortly after, it leaves. Why it left, I don’t know, maybe it was because I had walked out of its territory. I enjoy the freedom that I now feel because I no longer must watch it.
When you cannot control things, accept them, adapt to them, and don’t invest any more energy in them.
Deeper insights of my henro
Stone statues along the trail
On the way, I run into many altars, some bare, with only a stone statue, some completely decorated and loaded with offerings. Occasionally, I stop at one of them, because the place touches me, and I feel an energy radiating from the space or statue. Then I chant na-mu-dai-shi-hen-jo-kon-go, one of the sutras from the booklet. It feels good to do this. I don’t know why, but that doesn’t matter.
Where pilgrims fall over backwards: slippery slopes
The path is rough, uneven, sandy, and at times wet and slippery. In some places, some tree trunks have been used to create stairsteps, but usually it is just a path through the forest. The bits where the path has been reinforced with stone. These tiles have become slick with moisture and the growth of moss. Every now and then I slip, but thankfully I manage to catch myself every time. I can imagine this being the section where pilgrims fall over backwards. My kongozue, the pilgrim’s staff, catches me nicely.
My kongozue as support
This kongozue represents Kobo Daishi, the founder of the route. As a result, he is always present while you walk. I literally experience his support when I use the staff to descend the mountain. I had never expected this; that staff turns out to be deeply necessary.
Small barriers along the path
On one of the mountain ridges, I need to step over a fallen tree, which blocks the path. The path is not even a meter wide and taking this big a step while wearing a backpack is pretty intense. Luckily, I manage to take the hurdle safely.
Reaching the first summit
Then, I reach the highest point of the first mountain. There I find and altar, Jooren-an, which you access using a stone set of steps. Apparently, the workers that built it ascended the route with the stones to create this engineering marvel. Imagine the effort! There is a large statue, which I assume represents Kobo Daishi. I take some rest in the henro-hut next to the altar.
Daily workout: where pilgrims fall over backwards
A Japanese man with immense calves passes me while I’m there. He’s walking at a crazy pace! I think he was ascending the mountain at five, maybe six kilometres an hour [in 2024 I walked up this mountain at that pace after 47 days of walking]. Later on, I meet him again, on his way down. I have a little talk with him; he lives down the mountain close to temple 11, and does the climb as a work-out… where pilgrims fall over backwards!
Steep downhill
The path goes down steeply for a little bit. In a kilometre’s distance, I descend 320 metres. That is extremely hard on my feet and knees. I can feel a blister developing on my big toe, and that my feet are moving around a lot in my shoes. I need to fix this during my next rest, or else I will be covered in blisters by the end of today.
Henro-korogashi: where pilgrims fall backwards
I arrive in the valley between both mountain ranges. There I can see irrigation once more. A few small plots of farmland and mostly orchards. At the lowest point between the two mountains there is a road, which I cross. I get back on the path once there. After a few hundred metres, the path transitions into rocky terrain.
Can this be right?
The morning’s rain has made the rocks slick. I am climbing and clinging more than I am hiking. On some parts I’m forced to look for support points. The path steeply goes up there. This cannot possibly be right? Something starts gnawing at me. I can’t imagine that this is the right way. I grab my little guide and look at the map again. This place is marked as henro-korogashi; in 1,9 km I must ascend more than 300m. But after the temple there is also another path marked, which leads up further to 938 metres of height. I haven’t passed the temple, have I?
Rock climbing?
I stop twice, look at the map on my phone for where I am, examine the map again, and decide that I am going to return. I must have walked the wrong way. Thankfully, the way back goes much better that the way up. The way up was about forty-five minutes, the way down half an hour.
When in doubt… ask for directions
Then, I get back to the main road. I see a farmer who is labouring, and I call for him. He doesn’t know where the route is and does not understand my Japanese. Then we see two pilgrims approaching, and he signs to me that I should ask them where I need to go.
Reunited with the Spanish
The pilgrims turn out to be the two Spaniards. So, they were more than an hour behind me. Together we look for the route. On the road, we see no henro-waypointers. Only the path which I just came from has an indication. The GPS-map on their phone gives us certainty; that is the route we need to take.
Push a little harder..
It takes me a minute to get over that fact. I just spent almost one and a half hours of climbing, descending, and searching for the route that I had followed correctly the first time around. My mood is ruinous, I really need to call myself to order and give myself the necessary boost to continue with them. Thankfully, they are happy to walk the next part together.
Together up the mountain
Together, we get back on the path. There, it turns out that I am in between them when it comes to stamina. He takes the front, scouts ahead on the path, and waits for us every now and then. I follow him, and she is a little bit behind me. On the flat parts we take a break occasionally. He will not let us rest too long; else we’ll cool down too much. Full steam upwards it is!
Quote
Trust in yourself and persevere (even for a little bit longer)!
Deeper insights of my henro
I had been nearly there… where pilgrims fall over backwards
I do recognize a lot on this route. At a certain point I see the point where I decided to go back. And it turns out that not even fifteen metres from that point, a concrete set of stairs comes into view. It leads up to the parking lot of the temple. I was almost there when I decided to go back to the start. A wise lesson: Trust in yourself and persevere (even for a little bit longer)!
Temple 12 – Shosan-ji – For Mathijs
Together, we walk through the temple gate around two in the afternoon and walk into Shosan-ji. I wash my hands, swish my mouth, and look for the bell. Today, it is Mathijs’ birthday, so I make a short video for him. Sadly, the tree trunk only barely touches the bell, and you can’t hear the reverberation. I still don’t have the courage to make the bell clang resoundingly.
The temple itself is surrounded by the clouds, as if shrouded in mist. It makes it chilly, cool after the damp heat of this morning. My sweat cools quickly. I look for a long sleeve shirt and put it on quickly. Then I look for the altars, do my ritual, and get my booklet stamped.
A short rest
There, a little time to myself. Even at this height you will still find vending machines with soda. I purchase a bottle of Aquarius and drain it in one gulp. I only just made it with the water supply in my Camelbag. One the way there is a water source where you can refill your supply, which trickles out of a small pipe. Pure mountain spring water, cold and delicious. I did drink there, but there was no need to fill my bottles. Now I fill the two empty bottles that I keep in the side pockets of my backpack.
Staying in touch with the Spanish
On a small bench I makes small talk with the Spaniards. He is called Xavi. Sadly, I do not remember her name. We do exchange WhatsApp contact information; maybe we will meet again. Around us the people in the temple are busying themselves with decorating the temple beautifully. Tonight, there is a light festival up on the mountain. Xavi arranged something with a friend, who will pick them up this evening and bring them to the festival.
To Nabeiwa-so
Because of the crowd, the restaurant is closed, and we can’t get any hot drinks there. I decide to continue toward the ryokan around three o’clock, to get back up to temperature. The road to the ryokan is three and a half kilometres. The first part of the trek leads me over paths made of small rocks, which have been made as slippery as an eel by the rain. To make things worse, it starts to rain. That doesn’t improve my mood a bit. This is a day full of let-downs!
Finding the ryokan in Nabeiwa
In the town of Nabeiwa I follow the road and look for the ryokan. The way somewhere only gets longer if you are looking for something; finally, I see a sign which leads me to believe that the ryokan is located to the right of the road. I cross a small bridge and arrive at a building which has two storeys. But where is the entrance? For a little while, I can’t see where I can enter the building. When I go around the corner, I see a parking spot close to the entrance. It is around four in the afternoon when I can finally take off my shoes.
A warm welcome
The hostess comes outside, receives my kongozue, and washes the bottom of my staff. Then Kobo Daishi can rest at the other staffs in the hall. Inside, slippers and a warm welcome await me. After the hostess has made a copy of my passport, she points me to where the o-furo is, the bathroom, and guides me to my room. She will knock on my door in a little while, when I can use the bath.
Home for the night
In my room, I am greeted by tea and biscuits. I roll out the futon and note down today’s adventures in my journal. Then, I hear a knock on my door: The bathroom is ready!
The bath is a delightful way of recovering from a rough day. I shower myself until completely clean, wash myself twice, and then submerge myself in the hot water of the bath. It is scalding hot, and I almost burn myself, but after an adjustment period I can feel the tiredness leaving my body. I massage my calves and legs to relax them. After around ten minutes I get out of the bath, towel myself off, and put on the yakuta, the uncouth bathrobe, or home-kimono, and head back to my room. On the way I indicate that the bathroom is available again.
Dinner served on trays
Dinner is server at precisely 18:00. I’m glad I went downstairs a little earlier. The other guests also turn up on time. The Japanese lady that was at the onsen yesterday, but went to sleep elsewhere recognizes me and immediately sits down next to me. In a blend of English and Japanese we exchange experiences. She helps me improve my Japanese. It is amazing to see how she does this, without any blame or irritation, with a sense of humour to boot. I learn something new from every sentence.
An improvised meal
Seated next to her there are two ladies from Korea, who speak decent Japanese and English. They take part in the henro by bus transport, so they didn’t have to do the heavy ascent. Around six o’clock Geertje strolls in. When she tells us that she was too late to participate in the dinner, we all decide to give her a little of our meals. The host gives her a tray with plates, so she can still eat alongside us.
To bed!
After dinner we stay for a little while longer to keep conversation going. We put our dining trays next to the kitchen and thank the chef for the delicious food. Then we sit down with a glass of water and some tea. We are not supposed to; the host tidies up the dishes and starts to turn off the lights. Its time for us to head upstairs. In the hallway we see each other agian at the two washing basins in the hall where we brush our teeth.
The relaxing sound of a waterfall
My room in the ryokan is located next to a waterfall. I hear the slushing of the water when I lie in my bed. Very relaxing and sleep-inducing. I quickly fall into a deep sleep. After a long, exhausting day, I need to recover well.
Note to future henro:
In 2020 Nabeiwa-so was closed due to the lack of tourists. Covid took its toll. The owners of Guest House Morian Loft had plans to renovate the place. During my 2024 henro I went by and saw it was still ‘under construction’. This means there are very limited places to stay after Shosan-ji. You can walk up to Kamiyama where you can also find a busstop (in the direction of Tokushima city).