Day 59: The Final Mountain Stretch

Steps: 34,579 (32,6km)

Temples: 80 + 81 + 82

Alarm was set for 5am this morning- we had a train to catch at 6.10. Despite the ungodly hour, we still woke up a few minutes before the alarm – it appears our inner clocks are starting to get attuned to the rhythm of the sun.

Train was almost empty, but by the time we reached Tokushima an hour and forty minutes later, we understood what the extra cars had been for. Students and business people stood crammed close together – it appeared we had landed on the designated morning commute train.

After a quick transfer in Tokushima we ended up at Kamigawa station, at the exact spot where we left off a week ago.

Over breakfast, I reluctantly admitted that the reason I had been a little gloomy all morning (aside from hunger) was due to the fact that we were almost done walking.

“Don’t worry there’s still plenty to go” Jonas assured me. And as we got to temple 80, and saw Kūkai tipping his hat to us at the entrance, I instantly felt much better.

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After temple 80, the road went straight up for 300m to the Goshikidai Plateau, where both temple 81 and 82 are located.

These were the last two remaining mountain temples on our trip, so we did our best to enjoy the climb, even though it was extremely hot.

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By the time we reached temple 81, we were tired, sweaty and almost out of snacks (a dangerous combo)

However, we were still able to appreciate how beautiful it was – as well as recognize that there must be a main priest up there who really likes lucky cats 😅

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By late afternoon we reached temple 82. We came in through, shall we say a side entrance, when I chose to ignore the very clear signage that led down to the temple, thinking it led down from the mountain instead.

Determined not to go all the way back around (me), we cut through the forest and came out next to the main hall, with dirt and leaves clinging to our backpacks and twigs sticking out of my hair – veeery smooth entrance haha

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The temple lay deep in the forest and had an almost mystical air to it. The reason for this was explained on a plaque by the entrance:

[…] in the Helan Period, Buddhism came to value ascetic practices in order to attain special powers that give one the ability to cast spells and make prayers come true. That is why the temple, a place for ascetic practices, was selected to be not in a sunny, lively location, but in the depths of the mountain away from the town and people.

We stayed at the temple for a little while, but since it was already getting late, we decided to get on moving back down the mountain (and even though the Ushioni was said to have been slain by an archer some 400 years ago, I still had no desire to meet any of its descendants in a dark forest)

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We caught a train back to the city and got to our hotel just in time to put our tired feet up and enjoy the sunset over the harbor.