Day 14 -- The two-week mark

Total Distance: ~21km (plus some mountains and waiting for a ferry)

So, yep, it’s the two-week mark today. Judging by the map in my guidebook, I’m a bit behind in terms of when I want to be done.

I’ve been thinking today about how I want to continue this pilgrimage. I definitely want to give myself a full 40 days of walking, but at the pace I’m going it’ll take a full week more than that. Due to some engagements in mid- to late-May, as well as plane ticket plans being in the works, on top of wanting to be back in Aichi to hang out with people before I leave forever, I need to reflect on exactly what I’m going to be expecting of myself over the next 26 days. I definitely want to walk as much as possible, but should I care all that much about being a purist? I mean, I’ve already taken taxis and trains when I’ve estimated distances incorrectly.

Honestly, the reason I’m doing the pilgrimage is to see the nature of Shikoku and to interact with lots of different people and practice my Japanese. For me it’s never been the sort of machismo ‘look how far I powerwalked’ brag-fest that lots of experienced hikers here make it out to be.

The view from the top of Chikurinji

Interestingly, when I bring this up with Japanese people they’re totally in favor of me doing it however I want. Foreigners tend to look down on people who don’t walk the whole way.

Anyway, just messing with my own head today a little bit. Either way, I’m still going to do all the major mountains and walk all day, every day until May 10th at the very least. If I can finish by May 15th that’d be ideal. Any more after that and I may have to cheese a few days.

We’ll see.

On a brighter note, I rarely mention the condition of the places I stay, but tonight I’m staying in a place called 高知屋, Kōchi-ya, and I definitely have to say it’s better than any other place I’ve stayed in to date. The room is enormous, they have wi-fi, they do your laundry for you (!!), and everyone is so professional and polite. Good job, ladies and gentlemen.

Temple 31 竹林寺 Chikurinji (6.6 km)

STAIRS

Temples 31 and 32 were both on top of mountains, and for the better part of the morning it was raining. Though, I saw the weather report this morning and they were saying that it was going to be mostly thunderstorms today which turned out to be false. That’s always nice.

The stairs up to this one were the slickest smoothest slipperiest rocks in all of Japan. I couldn’t actually walk on them at all, instead having to tiptoe on the sides of them in the gutter area.

Temple 32 禅師峰寺 Zenjibuji (5.9 km)

This temple was less mountainous than Chikurinji but it still required quite a climb. Mercifully, they didn’t have any stairs leading up to it, so that’s good.

Temple 33 雪蹊寺 Sekkeiji (7.6 km)

Ferry!

The trip to Sekkeiji included a ferry! I’ve been on a ferry before, of course, but it’s always cool to see. Unfortunately I got there about 10 minutes after the ferry left so I had to wait another 50 minutes for another to arrive. In that amount of time I could have walked slightly further south where there’s just a bridge you can use instead of the ferry. But I really wanted to ride it.

And, yeah. My lodging is right across the street from the temple. Yay.