5th of September 2019 – Around six o’ clock, I wake up from the sunrise. I had forgotten to close a curtain yesterday evening, which causes the light to enter my room through the gap. I take my time getting up, get dressed, and I grab my things. I’m only allowed to hand in my keys after seven, so I make a breakfast of the ingredients I bought yesterday. I will need to build up my rations again today.
Goodbye to Pavilion Surf
At seven I hand in the keys, say goodbye to the owner of the hotel, and head back to the street. The air is gray and a slight drizzle picks up. I again follow the <55>, which mostly runs along the coast.
Walking along the coast
I walk past a small harbour, and then arrive at the border of a new prefecture. I am in Kochi, after hiking around Tukoshima for ten days. If everything goes well, I will return in that prefecture when I hike back from temple 88 to temple 1. The first 190km of the route are behind me. And I am still doing well, my stamina and conditioning have increased significantly, and I have gotten used to the daily walking.
Leaving Tokushima behind
390 km of the route runs through Kochi prefecture. The Buddhists have divided the four prefectures of Shikoku (literally, the four countries) into mental stages of the pilgrimage. Tukoshima is for spiritual awakening, Kochi has its aim more towards ascetic training. Or, more simply put, Tukoshima represents the past, while Kochi brings me into the present.
Ascetic training
While hiking, my spirit has an opportunity to rest itself. I am still visited by people and occurrences from the past in my thoughts, and they disappear again soon after. This process speeds up as the route progresses. Apparently cleaning up the upstairs has gotten started and is picking up the pace, and I am getting used to the emptiness of the days.
Today, there are grey and heavy clouds to be seen above the ocean. I can tell that there is moisture collecting itself there. But when the rains will burst forth, I do not know. When I encounter a henro-hut, I take a short reprieve. This one has been equipped luxuriously with a vending machine. These machines contain anything you can imagine. Usually, they have cold drinks, but there are also ones with hot drinks like coffee and soup. There are also a lot of old, rusted machines, which used to contain cigarettes. Most of those fortunately don’t work anymore. I do notice that the price of chilled drinks is going up steadily. The further away from the big city I get, the more I have to pay for a bottle of Aquarius or the Japanese version of it; Pocari Sweat.
The map is deceitful
The Route Guide seems to be losing its touch today. This time there’s only two maps, and yet 25 kilometres of walking distance. It looks like a small stretch but looks can be deceiving. Despite the fact that I keep following the same road, there is plenty of variation in scenery. I walk past Myotoku-ji (Toyo Daishi), a small temple. Opposite the temple is a small building, while the temple itself is colourful with all kinds of flags.
Deluge and sun
Periods of rain and dryness follow one another. The rain, however, looks to be winning the fight. I cover a lot of distance in my raincape and rain trousers. This makes for a swampy body, because despite the cloudy sky, it remains quite warm. It would appear to be around 28 degrees.
Now that I am walking along the coast, I am seeing more and more warnings on lantern poles. These warnings tell people how high a tsunami can reach and where you should go to stay safe. They make me feel less and less safe. When I get it pointed out so often, it scares me.
Toilet in the middle of nowhere
Then, I suddenly spot a brightly coloured toilet building along the route. Two dixies have been connected by a piece of toilet furniture. You would find one of those pieces of furniture in houses or hotels, in the hallway or in the corner of a room. It is a plastic closet with a washing basin in it. And I find it here, right alongside the road. It turns out to be a resource for the road workers, but henro are very welcome to use it. When I share the picture on Facebook, I get a lot of hilarious reactions. Mostly Japanese people think it is amazing that ‘a piece of home’ can be found right along the road.
Goro-goro ishi
Then, I get to a rough patch. Of course, in the past there didn’t used to be a road here. Then, pilgrims had to walk along the strip of coast. This part is marked by immense boulders that lay along the coast. The sound that the sea makes, has been transformed into an onomatopoeia: Goro-goro.
You can almost hear the sea growling with anger. I would not have liked to walk over top of these boulders, knowing that you still have a way to go, without a place to sleep or resources. These moments, I am glad to be a modern-day pilgrim. I have the privilege of sleeping on a futon in a normal room after a delicious meal!
Biblical flooding
And then suddenly… the heavens tear themselves apart. Not with a blue brilliance, but with a massive load of water that has been saving itself up inside of these clouds. I am still busy putting on my poncho, when my shoes have already filled themselves with water. This is not very nice, because the Gore-tex lining keeps the water inside. Every step I take, the water sucks inside my socks, and I can feel it rising up to my ankles, and my feet start to soak it up.
The end is in sight
Thankfully, I can take shelter inside a henro-hut and take off my shoes and socks. Should I put on dry socks now, or should I continue walking with these wet ones? I decide to put on dry ones after all, and I hope I can wash my socks tonight. I pour the water out of my shoes, take out the soles, and try to wave them dry. When I put everything back on, I notice a phone booth… you don’t see those in the Netherlands anymore. What an odd relic from the time before the mobile phone!
Pretty soon, I walk through a town with an adorable small harbour. I have almost reached my destination. I have traversed 23km today in the pouring rain, when I spot Lodge Ozaki. Now I still need to find out where the entrance is. It turns out to not be located along the parallel road, so I walk back to the main road. And yes, there it is. Around two in the afternoon, I get to the door. I am way too early.
Lodge Ozaki
Thankfully, I am welcomed inside. When I open the door, the hostess approaches me quickly. She takes some newspapers from a stack and helps me insert them into my shoes. Those should soak up the worst of the moisture. She hands me slippers and leads me to one of the low tables. There, I fill in a form, and I let her copy my passport.
I have been assigned a simple Japanese room, clean, but a little worn. I should be able to relax here after today’s tribulations. She brings me some tea and cookies. Delightful to sit here at a low table where I can sort out my notes and enjoy my warm tea in peace.
A shower in the ‘basement’
When I finish my tea, it is time to take a shower. For that, I need to head to the ‘basement’, where I find an old-fashioned bathroom with nice orange tiles. The water is nice and warm, and I scrub myself clean. When I walk down the hall, squeaky clean, the lady asks me if I have any laundry. I can put it all inside a basket, then she will make sure it is all clean in the morning.
A little later she even asks me if everything can go inside the dryer. I tell her I leave my socks to air-dry, because I am afraid that the wool of my socks may shrink too much. Talking to her I notice that I speak Japanese well enough, to have this sort of conversation. In understanding what she’s saying, I can communicate what I mean in simple sentences.
Reservation for tomorrow
She knocks on the door, to tell me that dinner is almost finished. I need to head downstairs. Before dinner I confer with her on what the best place might be to sleep tomorrow. I want to see if I can visit both temples 24 and 25 tomorrow. Then it might be best to get a night’s rest at Minshoku Urashima. She already has the phone number in her phone. Apparently, she arranges for people to sleep there more often. I notice that I like it when I arrange things like this and make sure, I know where I will be sleeping the next day. It gives me peace of mind.
Delicious food
The food is, as usual, delicious. It looks fantastic, and this time there is even Sashimi included. Once I finish my rice, she fills it back up. During dinner, her children take a seat at the other table, out of courtesy. They eat a little later than I do. Tomorrow morning, breakfast is at six.
I notice eventually that the hostess is quite commanding, in a subservient manner. Very interesting to experience. She asks, offers, but is very guiding in what choice I should make. And I actually enjoy that.
Time to roost
I am tired, so after dinner, I tidy up my things. I realise that I didn’t buy any groceries. There was barely anything along the road I could buy. I guess I will have to get something tomorrow. I fall asleep almost immediately. Around seven I arrive in the land of dreams.