Day 65: Towards the 88th Temple

Steps: 30.848 (26,8km)

Temples: 54 + 55

Today we started off at Iyo-Kameoka by the sea where we left off yesterday. We had only a small portion of the official route left, and so we took our time and made plenty of small stops along the way.

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When we walked by a small shop I couldn’t help but notice the cute Totoro decorations hanging out in front. As I went in closer to snap a picture, the owner came over and, seeing my interest, tried to offer one of them to me as a gift.

“Oh no-no!” I protested “that’s very kind of you, but I couldn’t – they belong together”

We told her where we were from and that today was our last day, and she sent us off with big smiles and good wishes.

However, only 10 mins later, she caught up to us in her car and offered to drive us to the next temple. Feeling a little bad to decline her kindness once more, we explained that we preferred to walk.

Her third gift I couldn’t resist though. Reaching onto the seat next to her she pulled out a small object and held it out to me – it was the cutest little Totoro figure, arms outstretched to make all the plants in my garden grow big overnight.

“Ah domo arogato, domo domo!” I said, smiling from ear to ear “thank you so much!”. The thought of her running around after we had left to find a Totoro themed gift to bring me made my heart swell with gratitude.

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Shortly thereafter we reached temple 54. We had run out of incense at the last temple, but luckily this one had a well stocked gift shop, full of cute henrō themed knick-knacks. We’re allowed to buy things now, we reminded ourselves, and didn’t hold back.

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From there it was only a short 3,7km to temple 55, the very last one on our journey.

The weather was getting hotter and we dragged our feet a little – weather it was due to tiredness or a reluctance to finish, it was hard to say – probably a bit of both.

However, after making stops to both buy and apply new sunscreen and to eat a bowl of ramen before the restaurants closed for lunch, we couldn’t postpone any longer.

Since temple 55 is in the middle of Imabari city, and we had read the original temple was totally destroyed during an air strike in WWII, I had feared the new temple might not be very interesting.

I needn’t have worried though – both the temples and main gate were beautiful. It also featured one of the coolest bell towers we have seen – built right into the main gate, you rang the bell by pulling a string downward to mark your entrance.

We burned the last of our newly bought incense, cried a few happy tears (me) and had our certificate decorated with the official stamp of the temple.

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Afterward we sat for a while at the temple grounds, watching henrōs come and go, performing their rituals, reciting the heart sutra in unison.

Finally we got up, bowed to the gate as we passed under it and turned right down the street, towards the water.

“Where are we going now?” Jonas asked “There are no more arrows to follow”

“Yeah” I said with a sad smile, and kept on walking.

“I haven’t looked at a map”, he said.

“I have”

“So I’m just following along after you”

“In that case” I said, with a grin “I guess things are exactly the same as always”

THE END*

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*Even though we still have a couple of weeks left in Japan, this feels like a natural point to stop writing the daily updates. This blog was always meant as a way to document our time as henrōs on Shikoku, and since we are now moving into the more touristy part of our trip, I don’t want to overflow it with posts about eating sushi and buying Totoro merch (I still might write a small post about going to Mount Kōyasan though).

These daily updates have been an excellent writing exercise for me and I already know Jonas and I will come to cherish them for holding so many small moments that otherwise would have been forgotten.

However, I also hope the blog can serve as inspiration for others wanting to walk the Shikoku pilgrimage, parts of it, or take on similar adventures.

When we started out, neither of us had done anything like this before – in fact, none of us had hiked for even two days in a row. In other words, choosing a 1200km hike as our first one was a bit of a gamble.

Luckily, we (and maybe especially I) ended up loving it way more than I could have hoped for. I thrived in the monotony of it, waking up early each day with a new goal to reach and little red dopamine-inducing path markers to follow on the way there.

Sure it’s been hard at times. But those days were nothing in comparison to all the wonderful adventures, big and small, we have had along the way (Also the clever thing about naming one of your prefectures “ascetic training” is that hardship becomes part of the fun 😉)

“What is it that is so deeply satisfying about walking around and finding your way in a new place?” One of our fellow henro’s asked us one day.

I still don’t know. But I have a very strong feeling this won’t be our last time doing something like this.

And hopefully, before to long, we will be back here, once again walking towards temple 88.