Day 15 -- Paradigm shift

Total distance, in terms of forward progress: ~14 km

So. Today I bought a bicycle.

Some people might consider this sort of thing ‘giving up’, and I can’t really argue with that reading of the situation. Certainly if you view this sort of journey a test of a person’s ability to walk large distances I’m giving up. But honestly walking large distances has never been the point of this trip for me.

I had a few reasons for doing the pilgrimage, the chief of which being

1. Spend a bunch of time speaking nothing but Japanese
2. See Shikoku

There’s no doubt that goal #1 has been met countless times over so far. I’ve never had so much confidence in my ability to speak the language. Every morning I make a reservation for the following night over the phone, and then almost every evening I have dinner with a bunch of Japanese people, which includes a bunch of conversation. Usually it’s a bunch of old retired guys, but still.

As for goal #2.. have I really been seeing Shikoku?

Certainly I’ve been taking a bunch of pictures. But in order to get the pilgrimage done in a reasonable amount of time I’ve pretty much been confined to a very limited path, at a very consistent (some including myself would say ‘frantic’) pace. I can’t count the number of parks, beaches, rivers, and so on that I couldn’t actually enjoy because I had a schedule to keep, and a pace to continue. I mean, hell, before today, the last time I ate at a restaurant was almost two weeks ago.

Today I ate at a Coco Curry House in Kōchi City. It made me very happy.

So starting tomorrow, I have a bicycle. I’ll post a picture of it tomorrow morning.

I’ve looked up average distances for people doing the pilgrimage by bike. From what it looks like, 80 km per day seems pretty normal. For now, I’m going to set a limit for myself at 50 km per day. That’ll put me at just over another two weeks.

I could choose to do more per day, but the point of having a bicycle is to free myself up to see and do more in the places I find myself in, instead of feeling pressured to power-walk everywhere.

Anyway, I hope that explanation helps you guys understand why I made the choice that I did. If you still think that using a bicycle is ‘cheating’, kindly cram it.

Temple 34 種間寺 Tanemaji (6.4 km)

I made it to 34 in a very reasonable amount of time. I went into the stamp office as I usually do, and the lady in there seemed bored to tears. I engaged her in conversation, and she seemed very appreciative. As I was leaving she stopped me and tossed me an orange, which I promptly ate. Delicious.

Tosa and the rest of the day (7.9 km to Tosa)

So I made it to Tosa, which is real close to temple 35. The original plan was to head to that temple and then finish out the day by buying a bicycle. However, I went to two cycle shops in Tosa and both of them told me that what I was looking for I’d really only be able to find in Kōchi city, which was 12 km in the opposite direction. So I hoofed it back to Kōchi and found a good place to buy a bike. They measured me, had a good bike for sale, and as they were getting it ready I went to CoCo’s Curry House.

I want to pause here and tell anyone reading this that if you can read even the faintest amount of Japanese you should go to CoCo’s at least once. Seriously. It’s ridiculously good.

Then I biked the 12 km back to Tosa, where I’m staying now. Tomorrow I’m off to 35, and then.. I have no idea. I’ll figure that out tonight or in the morning. For now, I’m signing out.