Steps: 36.691 (29,7km)
Temples: 41 + 42 + 43
As any experienced hiker will tell you, walking for extended periods of time alters your bodies relationship to food. Food is no longer just pleasure, calories become a necessity and almost no matter how many of them you consume, it won’t be enough to cover your expenditure.
Jonas is down to the last hole in his belt, and my pants definitely fit a little looser too – and trust me, it is not for a lack of trying. The amount of snacks we drag around with us on any given day is enough to make any hamster jealous.
And if walking in the sun requires a lot of energy, walking in the rain for extended periods of time requires force-feed-me-cream-puffs-and-drop-me-an-IV-of-high-fructose-corn-syrup-amounts of energy. This is because, in addition to the walking, you are spending energy keeping warm, keeping your balance on slippery terrain, keeping your spirits up. Add to that a mountain pass, a bit of PMS and an Achilles tendon that has been bothering me since our last mountain hike and we have ourselves a Three Kinds of Pasta for Dinner day.
We did try our best to dodge the rain though – but when it was still coming down by 9am and we knew we had 25k and 3 temples to cover before sundown, we decided it was time to pull on the ponchos and make the best of it.
What followed was 15k of shoes getting increasingly sloshier and smiles getting increasingly more forced.
I present to you, the three stages of walking in the rain:
Luckily we found some respite on a covered bench by temple 42, where we wrung out (literally) our socks and shoe-soles and got a refill on the energy deposits, while the rain slowly died out.
Ponchos safely secured on our backpacks, we hiked the last 15k across 300m of elevation, where we got to enjoy an amazing view of white clouds at the top 😅
We reached Matsuya and temple 43 as the last sun rays where coming through the clouds, and man it felt good to see her again after three days of nonstop clouds and rain <3
Which brings us back to the pastas. Because even though we might have a different need for calories these days we still enjoy a well prepared meal as much as your next child free millennial couple. Walking down the beautiful old Main Street of Matsuya, we stumbled upon Izakaya Oto and when we saw their menu of Italian foods prepared by a young crowd of craft beer enthusiast, we knew we had found our place for the night.
A shower and a nap and we’re ready to do it all again tomorrow (preferably without the rain though 🤞)
Hvad er det med den stige midt på turen?
Krydser fingre for sol til jer.
Vi har nydt formiddagen udendørs.
Pottet planter om, klippet roser og gjort højbedet klar.
Spændt på hvad fasanen siger til det. Den har indtaget et hjørne som udkigspost og skidested.
❤️🙋♂️🙋♀️
Thank you for visiting OTO. I would be very happy if I could be one page of a good trip.
You certainly were! Hope to be back some day for more of your delicious pasta 😋
I’d love to! ! I’ll be waiting for you someday! !