Day 48: Bekkaku Temple 18 (continued), Main Temples 72, 73 (and inner sanctuary), 74, and 75

We found a restaurant that served craft beer with our dinner this evening. I’m not saying it’ll affect my writing, but I’m not saying it won’t affect my writing either. I leave it to the wisdom of my readers.

Since we didn’t have time to complete Kaiganji (Bekkaku Temple 18) yesterday, it was our first destination for today. It was only an 8 minute walk from the train station, so it wasn’t difficult to visit the Daishido it completed.

We ran into Vincent (from Taiwan) again at Temple 72. I was funny, because we both looked at each other several times at a distance without truly acknowledging each other. I looked at him thinking, “That looks like Vincent, but he doesn’t seem to be acknowledging me? Is it someone else who looks like Vincent?” And he was looking at me without the hat I’ve been wearing and wondering if it was me, but I wasn’t acknowledging him either. It wasn’t until Vincent saw Connor that he knew he had the right people. We agreed we would walk with each other (more or less) for today.

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When Kobo Daishi was seven years old, he climbed to the cliffs above Shusshakaji and, after vowing to save all sentient beings, threw himself over the edge saying “If my desire to save all beings will be achieved, the Buddha will save me. If not, let me die.” An angelic being suddenly appeared and caught Kukai in its robes and placed him gently on the ground.
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I had already placed the okunoin (“inner sanctuary”) called Shashingadaka Zenjo on the list, but when Connor saw it and Vincent heard the story regarding the nearby cliffs they both insisted on going. It was a 30 minute climb to the temple along a very steep, yet paved, road. Unfortunately, it was so cloudy we did not get a photo of it from below.

When we arrived, we were the only people there. We took our pictures and looked at the various artifacts and images on the temple ground. Connor found a little passage to the back of the temple and there appeared to be path going up higher into the mountain. “Just a little bit,” I thought and started to climb. I got to a point with chains leading evening further up. I thought it must be safe at least until the end of the chains.

I got to the end of the chains I declared I wasn’t going to go any further and that we should probably turn back. However, the path still continued further up the mountain. Vincent passed me and continued up the mountain. Well, I wasn’t about to get left behind! Connor, Vincent and I ended up climbing to the top of Mt. Gahaishi. Ah, well, Then we had to climb back down.

We finished off with Temple 75, but we decided we would visit it again tomorrow morning. It deserves more time than we would have been able to give it and it’s forecast to be clearer tomorrow, so we’ll get better pictures.