Day 13: Temple 27

We started out to Temple 27 (Konomineji – “God Summit Temple”) around 7:15 a.m. It wasn’t going to be a long walk, but it was going to be a steep one. The temple sits at 424 meters above sea level and considered another nansho (“difficult journey”) site. However, it is paved most of the way with the henro mountain trail intersecting and overlapping frequently with the road up the mountain. We thought the easiest of the nansho temples and more comparable with our hike up to Taisanji (Bekkaku Temple 2) on Day 2.

We reached Konomineji around 9;30 a.m. It was a beautiful temple divided into two levels. The temple gate (Sanmon), main offices, purification fountain and temple bell were on the first and the Hondo and Daishido were on an upper level following a set of stairs.

After finishing at Konomineji, we had a visit to Konomine Shrine recommended to us. It’s about 100 meters in altitude above Konomineji, but it was worth the climb. It older than Konomineji, but now considered it’s okunoin (“inner sanctuary”).

After Konomine Shrine, we had one more climb to perform to reach the Sky and Sea Observation Park at the peak (570 meters above sea level).

We finally got an opportunity for Connor to FaceTime his mother using my iPhone. He hadn’t received any replies to any of his emails so far during the trip and had outright rejected my helpful suggestion that perhaps he had been disowned. We got through and, fortunately for Connor, he had not been disowned but all or her responses to him had been sent directly to his spam folder. Why he was sending his mother’s emails to a spam folder, I may never know.

After the tearful (OK, maybe not so tearful) reunion was complete, we needed to get back down the hill and try to get some miles in before the end of the day. We were expected back the Henro House for a second night, so we were again at the mercy of a train schedule.

Connor had expressed some concern previously regarding some of the daily mileage I had planned. He had let me know that after 16 miles parts of his body started falling off and he would have to carry them in his pack until he could paste them back on in the evening. But he was getting used to the distances and it was now just the occasional pinky or earlobe and those fit easily into his pockets and didn’t require too much glue. As for myself, after 16 miles, I just turn into a common octopus and waddle like a duck.

We had set our sights on the Wajiki Train Station, but saw that, by the time we would get there, the return train wouldn’t arrive at that station until after 7:00 p.m., getting us back to the guest house after 8:00 p.m. So we settled on one station closer to us, Akano, which had a return train arriving at 5:40 and getting us back to Nahari at 6:20 p.m. Again, we were the servants of the train timetable. We got there in time, but there was very little time for leisurely walking.

After returning to the house, our hostess bundled us into her car to take us the local onsen (public baths) which she had recommended highly. She dropped us off at the front door and headed back to the house to make dinner. It wasn’t until after we entered the bath house that we saw the sign “No Tattoos.” My nephew was fine, but I have a large tattoo on my left leg from when I visited a former girlfriend while she was working in Hawaii. I asked at the front desk and they confirmed they could not let me in, however they knew our host and offered to call her to come get me.

To set up my next decision, I must preface it by informing you I’m big and tall – 6’3” and close to 250 lbs. I’m big in the US. I’m a giant in Asia. I have a full beard and have grown my hair to the longest it’s been in my life. Basically, I asked myself, let the hostess come get me or walk through the darkened street of rural Japan for the 15 minutes it would take to get back to my lodging? Which would make a better story? I hope they’re soon telling their children the tale of the night the hairy ghost giant prowled their city streets.