Day 38: Temples 55, 56, 57, 58 and 59

Long day today, so short write up and many pictures.

Shooting the documentary footage yesterday had put us one temple behind in our schedule and today was already scheduled to be a long day. It was another of those no lodging located in the exactly “right” spot. Everything was either too short or very long to match nicely with the previous and following days.

I had forgotten my staff at Temple 54 the day before, but wasn’t too concerned as I hadn’t paid for it and I expected I could just pick up another forgotten staff in the next day or so. However, I had got a text from Isabela (we had exchanged contact information) and she said they could meet Connor and I at Temple 55, return the staff, and were wondering if they could ask some follow up questions to our interviews yesterday.

We, of course, said “yes” and met them a bit past 7:30 at Nankobo. After completing my temple duties, we sat down and started with the follow up.

One thing they wanted to know about was my law firm’s (psst, I work for a law firm in Chicago) mental health/spiritual health sponsorship program I had described to Isabela yesterday.

I don’t think I mentioned the “Inspiration Project” by name, but my firm awards a number of “scholarships” for individuals to take part in various mental health or spiritual health programs, events or activities. In short, I had submitted a proposal to my firm to walk the Shikoku Pilgrimage and was selected along with 5 other individuals to pursue personal projects dealing with personal mental and/or spiritual health. In essence, I’m being reimbursed for a large portion of this trip and I’m so grateful for the support. In exchange, I’m to write a report and submit pictures. I had already been planning to blog this trip and am notorious for forcing my vacation photos on friends, family, co-workers, random people at bars, etc. In the end, Connor will be paying more for this trips than I will, so I’ve been randomly treating him to lunch, picking up various expenses, and paying for the laundry, etc.