Day 2 - First rain

Total distance walked: ~21.4 km
Pictures for day 2 begin here.

I woke up this morning to look out the window and notice that the ground was all wet. Apparently it had rained quite a bit last night. It seemed as though the rain had stopped by the time it was time to set out, and it had, mostly, but there was still a sprinkle that persisted on through the morning. I wouldn’t have minded it so much except that it made the air that much more humid, which was kinda a bummer.

I have been enjoying these temple breakfasts and dinners quite a bit more than I expected to, by the way. I’m kinda a picky eater (though I have been getting slightly better recently) but being ultra hungry at the end of a long day of walking is a pretty good opportunity to force yourself to try new foods.

Also, I didn’t want to look like the stereotypical foreigner.

Temple 8 - 熊谷寺 Kumadaniji (3.8 km)

As I mentioned before, the weather was hit or miss but it was nice to feel a bit of water as I walked.

Hōrinji

Temple 9 - 法輪寺 Hōrinji (2.6 km)

This one was in the middle of farmland. It was a very small temple, but the people there were super nice. They gave me an お接待, which turned out to be a bag full of snacks and a can of green tea. Score!

Temple 10 - 切幡寺 Kirihadaji (5 km)

This one. My goodness. It took a while to get there, but when I approached, I was stopped by some nice people working at a henro office thingy. They offered to keep my bag for me as I climbed to temple number 10. They said it was because there were a lot of stairs. There ended up being a freaking ton of stairs. Three hundred thirty three, a sign at the bottom of it said. It was a pretty spicy experience making it up all those stairs, but it was really quite beautiful when I made it.

The road to Kirihadaji

Temple 11 - 藤井寺 Fujiidera (~10 km)

It was a pretty long hike to this one as well. I kinda forgot to take a picture of the actual temple proper (I need to get better at remembering that) but it was a fairly backwoodsy place. That was the last temple I went to today.

So then I went to the nearby ryokan that I thought I had made reservations for this morning, but as it turned out I dialed a different number and made reservations for a place slightly further away. Whatever though.

So here I am. Early start tomorrow at 6. Brain shutting down. G’night.