Day 3 -- Mountains climbing

Total distance: 16.8 km (but it was mountain hiking so it felt like a hundred)

Pictures for day 3 begin here.

The mountain trail

Temple number 12, Shōsanji (焼山寺), is on top of a mountain. I’ve climbed a much taller mountain than it, actually. Yarigatake. But today was every bit as difficult, what with the fact that I had to climb over several smaller mountains. Somehow the ups and downs in rapid succession made the whole ordeal a lot more painful on my joints.

It wouldn’t be a Buddhist pilgrimage if I didn’t use that opportunity to compare the ups and downs of mountain climbing to those of life. So there you go.

Today I met a really nice guy who gave me a rice ball at temple number 12, and also who was nice enough to (after a beer) sing me a wonderful song about his home prefecture. I didn’t know people did that but he just stood up in the middle of the udon place, announced he was going to sing, and then sang a song for me. It was awesome.

He also explained a really cool story about Kōbō Daishi (credited as the founder of the Shikoku pilgrimage) which I mostly understood!

That reminds me. I have been thinking about this for a while. All the websites listed things as being necessary like specific guidebooks, specific articles of clothing, and whatever. But nearly all of them said it’s not necessary to know Japanese.

You can certainly get by without any Japanese on this trip. In fact, I met a French dude who spoke neither English nor Japanese (who’d have thought the hardest person to communicate with in Japan would be a Frenchman?). But personally, I can’t imagine doing the pilgrimage without some kind of ability in Japanese. The people you meet are always so friendly and willing to strike up a conversation about anything, especially with a foreigner who has spent the time to learn their language.

It’s especially important in this country where the English education is a bit lacking. Japanese people can ask simple questions like “How old are you” or “Where are you from” or “What’s your name”, but anything outside of simple questions like that, you’re not going to be able to have nice conversations with people.

Anyway, that’s just my opinion. One of my favorite things about doing the pilgrimage is the opportunity to talk to a bunch of people for a short time. It’s great language practice because you’re basically having the same conversation over and over again.

Tonight's accommodations. Swanky.

And lastly, I feel like I should point out that I’m pretty impressed with my feet and ankles. They hurt while I’m walking, certainly, but they generally tend to rejuvenate themselves after a few hours of rest. My legs too. In fact, the only real part of me that hurts are my shoulders and neck, from carrying my bag. I have been considering ways to lighten my load… I may end up mailing my computer back to the states at some point, which may make these updates way shorter since I would have to write them on a cell phone.

Stuff to think about, anyway.