Day 31: Bekkaku Temple 8

We woke at 6:00 a.m. and, instead of serving breakfast, the inn had provided us with packages of baked buns, some fruit and energy bars instead. While chewing on one of the walnut buns, I noticed a friend had responded almost immediately to something I had posted. I looked up the time at home and figured why not try a FaceTime call. She and her husband answered and we had a nice ten minute video call. I hadn’t spoken with them for a month, so it was good to see that the world is still turning.

We reached Eitokuji/Toyogabashi (Bekkaku Temple 8 – “Temple of Eternal Virtue”/“Ten Nights Bridge”) before 9:00 a.m. It’s a really odd little temple. It’s located right a the interchange between the Matsuyama Expressway, National Route 56 and the edge of Ozu City. The Hondo is only meters away from Route 56 and it’s constant stream of traffic. What’s worse, we couldn’t find the Daishido.

After completing our duties at the hondo, we went to look under the bridge as there is supposed to be statue of Kukai laying on his side attempting to sleep there. When we got there, we also discovered that’s where the Daishido had gone to.

We left Toyogabashi around 9:30 and decided to take the much quieter pedestrian path along the river as we made our way into the interior of Shikoku. We hadn’t walked too long when we saw two incredible houses. It was as if someone thought, “Hey, I have a bunch of scaffolding and parts of a house that collapsed down the street. I should really build a tiered garden with that stuff and attach it to my house.”

We continued our way to Uchiko City. We decided to take an alternate route to the main road as we’d prefer not to be walking next to a busy road all the time. I was a pleasant diversion. We again took a quite road through a forest into some farmland. There were fields full of ripe cabbages being harvested and other fields of grape vines still barren strung along their guide wires. We were passed numerous times by truck laden with crates full of cabbages.

We had time to spare before continuing to our lodging, so we decided to stay in Uchiko for a bit to see its Kabuki Theater and one of its historic districts.

We left Uchiko City about 2:30 and reached our lodging at 5:15.