Steps: 31.194 (28,0km)
Temples: None
We left our hotel in the mountains relatively late this morning (~8.30am) because we wanted to wait out the last of the rain.
We had only made it a few hundred meters down the road before we were stopped by a group of older people, who had just parked their car to go visit the temple. They wanted to give us an osettai, and while one of them hurried back to the car I started speculating about which snack we might be munching on this morning (osettai are most often edible).
However when she came back, she wasn’t carrying candy or drinks. Instead, she gave us two cute little bean bag henrōs, one for each of us.
Tempted as we were we hadn’t bought any of the souvenirs at the temple shop yesterday, so these were a perfect little reminder of our time at temple 88.
The weather kept improving as we moved down the mountain, and sometime around noon the sun even started to show from behind the clouds. This gave us a much needed energy boost – we have both been feeling incredibly tired ever since reaching the top yesterday.
We also almost got lost a few times today. It appears most people chose the route that runs back to temple 10 (at least it was the one that had the best signage) whereas we are going the coastal route back to temple 3.
In general, we have found the signage to be a little less consistent in this last prefecture. (It’s almost like they expect us to be experienced at navigating by now? Haha)
Later, when we sat down across each other for lunch, I discovered that the crotch seam in Jonas’ pants had completely given up, so I now had an unobstructed view to his underwear 😂
Since it will be a few days before we can buy new ones, he bought a sewing kit our hotel and spent a couple of hours sowing them up by hand.
I spent those same two hours napping in the bed next to him (which is very unusual for me btw, so I guess it really must have been a big release for me to reach temple 88 😅)
Dinner was the best okonomiyaki we have had on the trip so far, and when I told the chef she practically blushed and thanked us profusely.
We walked back to the hotel under a clear and starry sky – I even spotted a shooting star.
I am only now realizing that I should probably have wished for Jonas’ pants to hold up over for another 100 kilometers 😅
Fortalte her til aften Z, at I nu havde nået målet tempel 88, og hun sad bare med åben mund og synes, I er fantastiske. Bare de nu husker at købe en lille souvenir til mig, sagde hun. Jammen det skriver du bare til onkel J9nas, sagde jeg – hvortil hun sagde. Det har jeg da allerede gjort.. og tilføjede, det er mærkeligt, de er helt omme på den anden side af jorden, og jeg savner dem egentligt!!! ❤️❤️❤️ Dertil kunne jeg kun tilfølje, at per og jeg gør det samme 🥰🥰🥰 glæder os til at se jer. Vi tager til Italien den 8/6, håber vi ses inden. Kh marianne 😘