Henro Day 35

Today I decided to follow the advice of HWS-san who I met at Aokijizou and instead of taking the mountain henro path, I walked along route 196 and intended to stay in the tsuyadou part way up the path down from #60.

However! When I got to #61 and asked the monk in the stamp office about it, he told me there wasn’t a tsuyadou – just an azumaya with excellent ventillation (as in no walls…)

I really couldn’t stay there without even a sleeping bag, so I stayed in a nearby hotel called “Business Hotel Komatsu”. Since I was close by, I visited temples 61 and 62.

We participated in the 6am service, then the chief priest talked to us. I took the above picture of “thousand arm Kanon”, the idol of this temple, with the permission of the chief priest.

Imabari City, temple 59 – Kokubunji

The 7 gods of fortune make another appearance… It’s said that if you take their aprons home then your wish will be granted, but none of them have aprons on – does this mean that someone has taken them all home? lol

I ate some senbei biscuits at Imabari Yunoura rest stop and made a cup noodle. I was eating it outside when a kitten approached me.

It got on my lap then sneezed leaving some snot on my trousers. (sob sob…)
I tried sharing a little of my noodles, but it didn’t eat much.

Saijou City, temple 61 – Kouonji. The second story (floor 1 to us brits) of this large building is kind of like a concert hall and is functioning as both the main temple building and the daishi building (the former idolises the bodhisattva specific to the temple and the latter idolises Kuukai aka Kouboudaishi)

This is where I learned of the non-existence of the tsuyadou and phoned “Business Ryokan Komatsu” in a slight panic. I got to stay in the hotel’s annex.

For the record, according to a note on my map written by K-san, the food here is delicious. But since I thought I was staying the night in a tsuyadou, I’d already bought food at the supermarket and missed out on the hotel food. I was a bit disappointed.

Saijou City, temple 62 – Houjuji

The entrance and my room in Business Ryokan Komatsu’s annex.

The annex is actually the second story of a butcher 3 minutes walk from the main ryokan. Apparently the meals involve meat, so my guess is that they cooperate with the butcher.

The room was comfortable and the butcher was kind – telling me a shortcut route to the mountain path for tomorrow. But I thought it was a little expensive considering I didn’t eat and on top of that the washing machine, dryer and aircon each had a device on which needs 100 yen per hour of operation. I don’t see why they need to be quite this stingy, to be honest…