Day 12: Temple 26 and Monet’s Garden

It was going to be a less stressful day, but we did have some time deadlines we did have to meet. We awoke at 6:00, ate at 6:30, and started at just after 7:00 a.m. on the 30 minute hike up to Temple 26. Kongochoji (Temple 26 – “Vajra Peak Temple” or “Western Temple”) was founded in 807 by Kobo Daishi. Going forward, if I mention one of the Main or Bekkaku Temples, just assume that we performed the rituals and got our stuff stamped.

It was just past 8:30 a.m and this would be our only temple today. The next temple, Konomineji – Temple 27, is the next nansho (“difficult journey”) temple and it would have been self-immolation to attempt it by the time we arrived to the foot of its mountain that same day. I had something else planned for us instead, but we had to get there in time to catch a bus.

We descended down the mountain back to Prefecture Road 55 and, upon reaching it, crossed over to visit Fudo-iwa, the okunoin temple of Kongochoji. The entrance was directly across the road from the trailhead we had just exited.

Along the way, we did take a little time to detour through the historic district of Kiragawa and view some of the house built in the traditional Japanese style that are still residences.

We were attempting to make it to Nahari Station by 2:00 p.m. We had time, but we couldn’t take too many breaks. We were able to stop for a short lunch sitting on the break wall along 55. In my lunch, I included a small bag of wasabi crackers. I loved them. A few hours later, I’m not so sure they loved me back. I’ll have to go give them another try to see if I can’t solicit a more tender reaction.

We made to Nahari Station around 1:50 p.m. Plenty of time to figure out the bus system to catch a ride up to Monet no Niwa (“Monet’s Garden”), the only garden outside of France that has permission to use the name of the painter Claude Monet. It’s a garden devoted to recreating the impressions of Monet’s flower painting and landscapes in a living garden.

Unfortunately, the restaurant is closed on Friday, but we were able to grab something small from the cafe and dined overlooking the Flower House section of the garden. The garden is spit into three sections – the Flower House, the Water Garden, and The Garden of Bordihera – each attempting to replicate the paintings of Claude Monet. The garden had only re-opened in the past two weeks from its winter closure, so we could only see the potential of what the garden must look like in full bloom. There were already many flower, but the trees and many other species had yet to recover and grow. I’m sorely tempted to come back on six weeks to see the difference. Should I put it to a vote?

We took the last bus back down to Nahari and had a only 15 minute walk over to our lodge for the night – Tabi no Yado Misono. We’re sharing a small room, but the hostess is energetic and very friendly. She informed us that it’s unlikely we’d be able to get the lodging we had intended for tomorrow as there is a large golf tournament taking place. I had seen the golf course before on my maps during my planning, but had never paid much attention to it. The proprietress suggested we leave our backpacks behind, hike as far as we could tomorrow, and take the train back and stay a second night – free meals if we did. I like the idea of hiking without a full pack, exactly as we had done on Day 9. So I’m game.