Steps: 23.507 (20,6km)
Temples: 47 + 48 + 49 + 50 + 51
My mom texted me this morning: “are you alright? Missed your daily update!”
Haha whoops sorry mom! – but yes we are all right it’s just that nothing really interesting happened yesterday. We ran around Matsuyama all day buying souvenirs and new clothes (neither of us felt like spending the rest of the trip in our worn out hiking clothes) and basically doubled our combined expenses for the trip so far…
But today we got back on the road! We started at temple 47, where we left off on day 43. Public transport turned out to be practically non existing in that direction, so we opted for some extra sleep and a taxi instead.
Not long after temple 47 we ran into the dynamic duo of Sena-san and Etienne-san. Sena from Tokyo quit his job a year ago to cycle around Japan, but was taking a “break” (my words, not his) to walk around Shikoku. Him and Etienne had met a few days ago and decided to walk some of the pilgrimage together.
To our great amusement and astonishment Sena’s walking staff was almost 15 whole centimeters shorter than when he started out (in comparison to our 4cm) – he must have really had some built up aggression he was taking out on the road 😂
The two also introduced us to our first taste of takoyaki (octopus balls). And really, after having spent almost 5 months combined in Japan at this point, I’ll say it was about time.
I asked Sena in broken Japanese what the meaning of his name was (Japanese names often have a chosen meaning). “Se” meant “star”, he said, and “na” … he couldn’t quite translate that. But after a few moments of googling he proclaimed triumphantly “it means becoming a star!”
“すごい (Sugoi)!” I said – “cool! Our very own star boy!”
We reached temple 51 in Matsuyama city center a little after noon and spent some time walking around the large and impressive temple grounds.
Behind and underneath the temple runs a “mantra” cave which I was very adamant Jonas accompany me into because it was rather creepy.
When we got back out I was hijacker’s by a local tv station crew. They clearly wanted to shoot some foreigners at the temple but seemed to have forgotten that this required them to speak English. The interviewer stood in silence several times seemingly unable to formulate his questions (and/or understand my answers to them) 😅
But they seemed satisfied and also got a few shots of me bowing at the temple, so it all worked out in the end I guess.
Sena and Etianne continued on while we headed back into the city. We have precious little walking left and so are splitting it into some shorter days.
Now we are headed out for dinner and wine and we can hardly recognize ourselves without backpacks and walking sticks.
I ser så GODT UD, uanset hvad I bærer 😘❤️🤩