Steps: 34.982 (28,0km)
Temples: 44 + 45
Today we had breakfast at temple 44. It was early so we had the place to ourselves as we puttered around and lit the first incense sticks of the day.
The temple and its surroundings are impressive. In the main gate hangs the biggest pair of straw sandals you ever saw (which are re-braided once every 100 years) and giant old trees tower over the building’s moss covered stone statues. The forest temples always feel as if they are full of ancient wisdom.
From there the road went up and down over the mountains, with spectacular views in between, and somewhere between temples 44 and 45 we passed 1000 kilometers since starting out in early March!
A few kilometers from temple 45 we reached a cross road. We had already been advised by fellow henro Sam to go via the old route, counter clockwise, and approach the temple from above. I have really been looking forward to this, since he told us it was especially beautiful and almost mystical to see the temple show up through the trees this way.
However, close to the crossing we met a henro coming from the temple who advised the opposite; we should follow the new road, clockwise, for the most spiritual experience. This road, he said, took us past many of the big rock formations, that the temple is named after and made you really understand the soul of the temple (I’m paraphrasing)
We pondered this conundrum over an onigiri at the crossing.
“I wonder what this is supposed to teach us?” I thought aloud to Jonas “that nothing really matters?”
In the end, we ended up taking the old route. Partly because I had been looking forward to it for so long, but also because the other route is much flatter, which would be nicer on the way home when we were tired.
Whether it was the right choice, I don’t know – I certainly saw the appeal of the other route as well on the way back. Here you approach the temple from below via a long road lined with stone statues and giant trees that must have been standing there for hundreds of years, seeing thousands of pilgrims pass by.
I guess we will have to come back and do it the other way around to figure out which is better (hey, maybe that what the lesson?).
The temple itself is super cool – constructed to fit into the bedrock, it looks as if it grows right out of the mountain. (On a side note it also featured some pretty cool compost toilets, which are a nifty solution to the lack of plumbing halfway up a cliff side)
My foot feels as if it’s getting a little better, (but maybe it’s just because Jonas taped it up with sports tape on both sides haha)
But hey, whatever works. It appears that nothing really matters that much anyway ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
Glæder mig at foden føles bedre- uanset hvad😘🙋♀️