Pick-Up Truck – April 6, 2019

  • Saturday, April 6, 2019, Day 24
  • Temples: #50 and #51
  • Matsuyama City, Japan
  • Weather: 40-55 Overcast
  • Miles 30 miles (walk, truck, chair lift, rope line) / Total Miles 478.1

High on our list of things we should have done was to accept car rides. Christine and I declined rides from “driving o-henros” as we like to walk. Hours down the road with more miles to go, we chastise ourselves for not taking advantage of an opportunity.

This morning I led the way. We learned it was the right way but the long, hilly way. Keizo K. offered us a ride in his pick-up truck to Temple #50 and off we went!

  1. Christine and Linda in a pick-up truck
  2. Christine and Linda in a pick-up truck
  3. Keizo K. offers us o-setts I oranges
  4. Christine, Keizo K. and Linda

Etched in Our Heart – April 6, 2019

  • Saturday, April 6, 2019, Day 24
  • Temples: #50 and #51
  • Matsuyama City, Japan
  • Weather: 40-55 Overcast and turning blue skies
  • Miles 30 miles (walk, back of a pick-up truck, chair lift, rope line) / Total Miles 478.1

Could there be a better way to spend a day then in the company of a dear friend? This is our day to be together. We talk. We laugh. We take scores of pictures of each other and together to record this day on our smartphones. A bit needless as the day will be etched in our hearts.

  1. Christine and Linda, Takanokomachi-no Hotel
  2. Christine and Linda, Temple #51
  3. Christine and Linda, Matsuyama Castle
  4. Christine and Linda, Matsuyama Castle

Book – April 5, 2019

  • Friday, April 5, 2019, Day 23
  • Temples: #46, #47, #48, #49
  • Matsuyama City, Japan
  • Weather: 40-55 Overcast
  • Miles 48 mikes (2 buses) / Total Miles 448.1

Navigating and planning. All English speaking o-henros use the same marvelous book.

  1. Isabell and Robert, Montreal at Temple #48
  2. Shikoku Japan 88 Route Guide
  3. Christine helps plan Linda’s coming day and hotel clerk makes reservations

Crème de la Crème – April 5, 2019

  • Friday, April 5, 2019, Day 23
  • Temples: #46, #47, #48, #49
  • Matsuyama City, Japan
  • Weather: 40-55 Overcast
  • Miles 48 mikes (2 buses) / Total Miles 448.1

Christine and I experience the crème de la crème onsen affiliate with Takanokomachi-no Hotel.

  • Indoor and out door hot baths
  • Indoor “warm” bath in a doughnut configuration with jet stream alcoves. Suitable for pool jogging.
  • Ice cold bath
  • Warm mist room
  • Sauna
  • Outdoor heated slate flooring topped with a thin film of warm water and stone pillows. Simply lie on your back and head on stone pillow. Feel the heated slate and warm water on your back while your front side catches the cool breeze. Two simultaneous sensations.
  1. Gate Ceiling Temple #47
  2. Temple #47’s cat
  3. Temple Monjuin

Watercolor Drawing – April 5, 2019

  • Friday, April 5, 2019, Day 23
  • Temples: #46, #47, #48, #49
  • Matsuyama City, Japan
  • Weather: 40-55 Overcast
  • Miles 48 Mikes (2 buses) / Total Miles 448.1

Takeo T., one of last night’s dinner acquaintances, greeted me with cherry blossom watercolor and ink pen drawing he had made since last night’s dinner. He felt he may have intruded on my dinner. I tried to explain the dinner companionship was what had made the dinner special. What an amazing o-settai. As hard as it was for me to fold the watercolor in half and tuck it in my stamp book, creasing it was the only safe way to carry it it in my backpack.

  1. Takeo and Miyoko T.
  2. Main Temple #46
  3. Temple #46

Rock Face- April 4, 2019

  • Thursday, April 4, 2019, Day 22
  • Temples: #44 and #45
  • Kuma-kōgen, Japan
  • Weather: 35-55 COLD MORNING Blue skies
  • Miles 17.1 (walk, train and bus) / Total Miles 400.1

Temple #45 sits tucked high in the rock face of a mountain. It reminded me of the Anasi Clift dwellings at Mesa Verde, Colorado.

Single people always attract the interest of others. I love when others join me for dinner and conversation. Our stories weave together to make a tapestry. Don’t you love our matching Japanese yukata, house robe, and tanzen, short jacket.

  1. Temple #45
  2. Temple #45
  3. Dinner

So Special – April 4, 2019

  • Thursday, April 4, 2019, Day 22
  • Temples: #44 and #45
  • Kuma-kōgen, Japan
  • Weather: 35-55 COLD MORNING Blue skies
  • Miles 17.1 (walk, train and bus) / Total Miles 400.1

Parisian Christine C. and I met our first day walking the Camino Santiago in France. We became dear friends. Today our 88 Buddhist Temples pilgrimage crossed paths. It was an out-and-back route. I was walking towards Temple #45 and Christine was walking from Temple #45. There we stood in a Japanese forest face-to-face. She traveled east half-way around the world while I traveled west-halfway around the world. Amazing how it all came together at this one moment. We had been emailing each other so we knew our itineraries were getting awfully close. Our reunion was as though no time had passed since we last met. A day to cherish.

  1. Linda to and Christine from Temple #45
  2. 2014 Photo of Mimi V., Joanna L., Linda, and Christine on the Camino.
  3. Christine from Temple #45. A look of complete joy