Zenpuku-ji

On the second day of the pilgrimage, I was up by 4 AM, a vestige of the jetlag, by 6am I was pretty hungry. I decided to go to the Sobe noodles place close by for breakfast. I walked to it only to find it opens in about six more hours.

No breakfast, however, there was a temple named Zenpuku-ji showing up close by on the map. I decided to walk to it. It turned out to be a small cemetery and temple. I was wondering if it was grand enough to be included in the 88 temple list. But what do I know? And it was closed.

Walking back, I saw a kumquat tree laden with fruit for the taking! Breakfast solved, with plenty of Vitamin C.

A quick check indicated, there is indeed a Zenpuku-ji temple, several hundred miles away, and it is not the one I went to.

The owner of the ryokan I was in sat down and helped me plan the visits for the day. I was going to go to Jizo-ji temple. He showed the the site to plan future visits at https://shikokuhenro.114eri.net/en/home-en/ and told I should finish the day a temple 11 named Fujidera.

The walk to Jizo-ji needed me to retrace the highway I had walked on to the ryokan. On the suggestion of the owner of the ryokan, Idecided to take a bus.

I reached the bus stop a few minutes before its arrival and I was the only person on board. The driver did not speak English. He got up, removing his seatbelt to direct me to take a ticket from a machine at the rear entrance of the bus. I knew the bus stop to the temple and at that location, the driver told me in sign language to show him the ticket which had a number on it. There was a fare table which indicated I needed to pay ¥180 based on where I boarded. I paid him that amount and he opened the front door so I could walk to Jizo-ji.

At 9:30 in the morning with one temple already under my belt, it was time to decide what to accomplish for the day.

From my location within 6 miles, there were three other temples ans I decided to go for them. The number 6 was Anraku-ji which was 3 miles away.

Another beautiful temple, Anraku-ji did not disappoint. A sweet, elderly lady was very interested in helping me find a lunch place and mentioned that it is in front of the next temple I could visit.

I ran into an elderly German gentleman and his grown son, who I saw yesterday at the first temple. They recognized me and we exchanged pleasantries.

There was a group of ladies, who were giving pilgrims chilled iced tea, and candy. That was so nice of them.

Walking another mile took me to the next temple named Jurakuji. I saw some other familiar pilgrims here.

After this temple, I was so hungry. Luckily, there was a restaurant right across from it. This was the same restaurant that the lady at the previous temple had told me about. With a $6 panko-fried fish meal, I was energetic to proceed towards the eighth temple.

This was about an hour walk, which had beautiful vistas of green trees, very well-kept and manicured lawns, beautiful, multi-colored wildflowers blooming in the spring, as well as the topiary trees, that are so common in Japan.

Kumaraniji temple, from 1687 is majestic, surrounded by mountains and with a very beautiful, long entrance, flanked by green trees, and the stones with inscribed sutras.

Each temple has a bell that pilgrims can ring. The etiquette is that it should be rung once when you approach and not again when you leave. I tried it and it was hard to do it while taking this video.

Horinji temple was next and it was 2.5 km away. Walking to it was a stroll through natural beauty. There were mountains all around and roadsides had lots of rice farms.

The temple had walls on all sides and was relatively compact.

Carrying the backpack was getting hard as the load was not properly being carried on the hip thereby hurting my shoulder. Another temple to go before calling it a day!

On my last walk of the day to the temple 11 named Fujidera, the sun seemed hotter, the backpack seemed heavier, and my spirit was sagging. So I decided to just find a ryokan and rest.

I called the ryokan suggested by the owner from previous night. It is named channel-kan, and it had a place available. While browsing, I found another one named Awarakuya which served a multiple course traditional Japanese menu dinner served along with the accommodation.

Always a sucker for good food, I wanted to try this dinner. I called the owner and although he couldn't speak English well, he communicated he would pick me up from the landmark I was at. As I had to wait for this person to come to pick me up for at least 15 to 20 minutes, I knocked on the door of this building.

A man came out but since he could not understand English, he called his wife to talk to me. His wife couldn't speak much English either and she called her son, her mother-in-law, and another visiting guest. According to the Google maps, this landmark was supposed to be an eatery, so I was asking them if they have some coffee.

The five of them were so overjoyed to see a stranger visiting from San Francisco and could not hide their happiness. They kept smiling, and wanted to take a selfie with me, even the grandma was trying to learn more about me and wanted a picture.

They were actually running a bakery, which supplied different kinds of breads to businesses, and it was not actually a place open to public. One of them ran and got me a coffee. They were trying to figure out how to help me while we awaited the person from Awarakuya to arrive. This family even offered to drive me to Awarakuya, and I did not want to overstay my welcome.

Thankfully, the Awarakumya person arrived. He asked me my name and realized that I was the wrong person and he did not have space in his ryokan for me. He took me in his van nevertheless, and brought me to an alternative place where I could spend the night. That place happened to be channel-kan and I had just talked to them! What a coincidence!

This ryokan was good. They suggested that I walk to an Izakaya, which was highly rated. What an eventful day!