Total distance: ~30 km
Pictures start here
Based on the amount of time I walked yesterday, I planned ahead for about 30 km worth of walking. Actually a little over. Time-wise it worked out fantastically. I got to the ryokan at about 4:15 (which is good because these places tend to prefer that you arrive before 5).
Body-wise, I feel like a total mess. This is the most I’ve walked with my entire bag (I walked a similar distance yesterday but I didn’t have my backpack with me for half of it) and my shoulders are killing me. I need to find a way to get my bag lighter. I think I’ll start with throwing away my contacts and solution and whatnot—I’m not ever going to be using my contacts on this trip. Kinda a waste of money, but oh well.
Also, I brought two pairs of jeans, but I’m kinda thinking I only need one. Especially because my other pair has a hole in the knee that expands exponentially every time I wear them. Soon they will be more hole than jean.
Temple 18 - 恩山寺 Onzanji (~16 km)
 |
| Onzanji |
Originally, I was going to hop a taxi and head to 17 and walk from there. Luckily, I mentioned this plan to the lady working at the ryokan that morning and she told me that it would be a waste of money. 17 was due north and 19 was due east, and walking from the ryokan and walking from temple 17 would take about the same amount of time. I’m not one to argue with saving money.
Temple 18 was very nice. It was pretty far up on a hill, which required a bunch of stairs, but it was very beautiful.
Temple 19 - 立江寺 Tatsueji (4.6 km)
This one was very close by. I actually took about a 20 minute break here to rest my feet and shoulders.
 |
| Tatsueji |
金子屋 Kanekoya (The ryokan where I’m staying) (~10 km)
And here I am. Temple 20 is up in the mountains, and this is actually the closest ryokan to the mountains I could find. It’s only another 4-5 km to temple 20 tomorrow, and not too far to temple 21 after that, but it’s going to be mostly mountain climbing and descending and climbing and descending.
I obviously can’t plan for another 30 km tomorrow, since it’s going to be pretty slow going for the most part. I think, though, that I can get the whole way through the mountains and stay somewhere near temple number 22.
 |
| My lodging for the night. Also pictured in background: the rainclouds and mountains I will be dealing with tomorrow. |
At dinner there was a guy pushing a place called Green House Juen, which is 10 km past 22, which would make it a 30 km walk, which I don’t think I can do when half of it is mountains. He said it was okay though because they’d send a car for me when I reached temple 22, bring me back to the place to stay, then bring me back to temple 22 the following morning. I tried to ask why Green House was worth all the extra effort where I could just book a place next to 22 without all the car rigamarole, but I was also trying to be polite because he was taking an interest in recommending stuff to me. The end result being I have no idea what I’m going to do.
On the plus side, it’s supposed to rain cats and dogs all day tomorrow (so I’ve heard) so that’s a great excuse for cutting the day at 22 and ending my walk around noon.
Anyway, bedtime.
No comments:
Post a Comment