Still writing this offline.
Yesterday was a big day: I went from temple 11 (Fujidera, a zen temple) to temple 12 (Shousanji). It’s about 700m vertically up then 300m down then 400m up again but wow! Fujidera is very pretty with old wisteria but Shousanji is amazing. The climb is worth it, except y’know, it seems most people drive.
After that I met up with some other henro going to the next town for lodging. For reasons to boring to explain, I wound up forgoing my room plans for the night. Instead, I hung out with Ami-San, another walking henro and Kimura-San, a shopkeeper who’s done the pilgrimage 89 times! Kimura-San was extremely kind to us and we drank together. Ami-San and I slept in a henro-eki and talked till we fell asleep. This morning he headed out before me.
I’m writing this on my way to temple 13 (Dainichiji) while I’ve stopped for a cold beer to avoid mid-day sun. Soon, I’ll return to the road. I’ll be closer to more temples and people again soon. Hopefully, Internet will come soon.
And now, more captionless pics. Hope to fix this when I’m online again.
