Day 22: Temple 38

Ok. Back in the saddle. After rearranging the next few days to make them a little less taxing, we decided we could get a later start, having only 12.5 miles to cover today. After our 6:30 scheduled breakfast, we even took some time to crawl back into our beds and relax for another hour. By the time 8:00 a.m. came around, Connor was softly snoring, so I decided we could wait a bit longer. We got out of Guest House Okinohama after 9:00 a.m. We’ll be staying there again tomorrow night.

We were intent on taking it slower today. Even with my feet taped up, I had developed large blisters on the balls of both feet and one on the outside of my right heel. It was going to affect my pace.

We decided to the take the beach route down to Okinohama Beach. More than a dozen surfers were out on the ocean, but the waves didn’t seem to be cooperating. We only saw a few get up and ride a wave any sort of distance. It was a nice change to be walking on sand rather than the road even if it did slow our pace. We eventually departed the beach and, after greeting several surfers at their cars calling it a day, got back on a small road following the coast.

We continue following a side road around the coast until we found a pilgrim sign point out to a rocky beach. Even I had a sense of, “is this some kind of prank?” as there were several more pilgrim signs assuring us that this was indeed the way. We reached a point where the beach ran into a small cliff wall and another set of signs beckoned us back into the woods.

We only climbed a short time until we again rejoined the small coastal road we had left 15 minutes before. On gaining the road, we again ran into two resting older Japanese gentlemen who’d we been leapfrogging with over the past two days. Greetings and smiles were exchanged as we passed, sure we would probably see them again today or tomorrow.

We took a steep pilgrim shortcut through a small valley. We came upon a fallen tree that was low enough over the trail that I had to get down on all fours and crawl under. I was greeted by a laughing Japanese (correction: Chinese) woman pilgrim on the other side who almost immediately squatted and duck walked under the tree trunk. [Note: This is where we first encountered Ari, the documentary cameraman, whom we’ll meet again just after Matsuyama. He was filing the woman running down the trail.] Ah, well. It was fairly easy climb back up to the road from there. It was about this time that passed the 500 kilometer mark on the “official” pilgrim trail in our map books.

We continued down to a small fishing village with the hopes for finding something for lunch, but no luck. It was just the snack mixes and some chocolate almonds from our stashes and what was available in a nearby vending machine. Hunger delayed, but not abated, we continue to a mini-goal I had for that day.

There is a rest hut called Kanoshira which has been described as “legendary” in some of my research. It’s a place you could see had been built with love and used frequently over many years, but now fallen into a state of decay. It has a built-in bedroom, living room/kitchen with small stove, and clothes washer. The only thing we believe still works is the faucet by the washer.

We still had an hour-and-a-half to reach Temple 38, but, to Connor’s surprise, we still had one place to visit.

The end of the peninsula is called Cape Ashizuri. Steep cliffs rise out of the sea against the backdrop of the endless sea. A lone lighthouse, paint pealing from its side, sits on a promontory jutting out into the waters. The beauty of the location and desolate loneliness became a place for the distraught to end their lives, throwing themselves onto the rocks far below. It was a place where suicides were not uncommon, but after a Japanese author in the 1950’s wrote a novel wherein a couple end their lives by jumping together off the rocky cliffs, Cape Ashizuri became a suicide destination.

Kongofukuji (Temple 38 – Temple of Everlasting Happiness) was founded by Kukai in 822 CE on behalf of the Emperor Saga. It is believed from here one can set off for the land of paradise. Connor and I both really liked this large temple complex with its large pond at the center.