Another short post and no pictures.
Today’s plan was simple. For me, get back to Temple 1, get to the main island of Honshu and find a place for the night with relative ease of access to Mt. Koya tomorrow. For Connor, collect as many missing stamps as he could.
By asking on one of the Facebook pilgrim pages, I found out the juzu beads could be assembled and made presentable by the very shop we had stopped at yesterday. It had crossed my mind to ask them before I got there yesterday, but I was preoccupied with how the scroll was going to be handled that I forgot to ask. Therefore, my first stop of the day was back at Sumotoriya Asano. Connor and I walked together for a bit, but as I have a slower pace than him, I told him to leave me behind so as not to waste any time on his quest for stamps.
He pulled ahead fairly quickly and soon turned toward Temple 9 as I proceeded to the shop below Temple 10. The process of picking out tassels, additional design beads and a display box for the juzu was pretty straight forward. I’ll receive back at my workplace in about a month along with the scroll.
It was a 4 hour uneventful walk from Sumotoriya Asano to Ryozenji. I took a total of three pictures the entire walk and they’re really not worth sharing. I’m saying this a person who knows they’ve already shared some “meh” photos with you.
I got to Ryozenji around 2:30 in the afternoon. I recited the sutras at both the Hondo and the Daishido. I had some candles left, but the incense sticks I had bummed off of Connor had run out with Bekkaku Temple 20. No fanfare, no pomp, no notice. The pilgrims around me went about there own business as I completed the final stage of the walk. I could now travel again by mechanical means without feeling a twinge of guilt. I was done “pilgrim walking”.
I checked the timetables and saw there was a train arriving at Bando Station heading to Tokushima Station at 3:26. I made it to station a bit after 3:00 p.m. … my goodness, this is getting boring.
Anyway, train to Tokushima Station, taxi from Tokushima Station to Nankai Ferry, Nankai Ferry to Wakayama, train from Wakayama to Namba Station in Osaka, hotel near Namba Station.
I had purchased a cheaper “pilgrim” ticket which would have taken me to Koya-san tonight, but I wouldn’t have gotten then at 10:47 p.m. with no arranged lodging. It wasn’t supposed to rain tonight and I now have a sleeping bag and pad, but finding a place out of the way enough to notice disturb anyone was questionable, so I opted to get off the train in Osaka and check into one of the many hotels near the station.
Taiwan Vincent and I have been messaging back and forth and will probably share a train ride up to Koya-san tomorrow morning and Connor will hopefully join us tomorrow evening. Good night, all.
2023 Shikoku Henro 