Day 1 Maybe the last entry for the day

This is the gate into Temple #7 where we stayed the night. It was more like a hotel or a ryokan than a temple. We shared a room and the meals were in the basement, where we sat in chairs at tables. The food was typical except that we all ate huge quantities of rice. Many people drank beer or sake, even though it is actually prohibited if you are doing the whole Buddhist thing. Ian and I had decided to follow tradition and obey the 10 rules of conduct. I will tell you about them some time later.

Many of the temples had groups of small statues like this. As you can see, most of them are wearing clothes, gifts from pilgrims or others. The little thing (left of center) that looks like a building is a box for monetary gifts. Giving gifts is an integral part of Buddhism so you find these boxes everywhere. Most of them are full of one yen coins.

The man in the picture is lighting incense before going up to the main building on the left.

This is Ian approaching the same building. I, of course, was right behind him.

This little statue was so covered with strings of beads that you could not see the statue itself. I assume that it was a Bodhisattva of some kind.

During the day we received a lot settai. The gifts gave us a kind of warm glow, even though we knew that they were not really for us, but instead were for the Buddha or the Bodhisattva of the local temple.

Between the first and second temples, a woman came running out of a house and gave us each a can of tea and a handmade coin purse.

Later, between four and five a group of us were debating whether or not to go into a little shop and have udon (noodles), when the waitress (owner most likely) came out and invited us in, saying that if we did not want to eat, we could just come in and rest, sitting down and drinking free tea. We declined because it was still to early to eat and also the place was already crowded. Instead Ian and I went next door and bought anmanju (dumplings full of sweet beanpaste). After we had paid, the woman reached into one of the shelves and brought out a large steamed sweet potato for each of us. Together there was so much that we used them for our lunch.

When we were between temples five and six, our map showed a post office just of the route and, since Ian needed to go and get some cash, we turned in that direction. We both had postal savings accounts that allowed us to withdraw money at any post office. As we walked toward the post office, we met a couple of other pilgrims that we had seen during the day. They said that there was a coffee shop between where we were and the P.O., so I decided to have coffee while we waited for Ian. When we reached the coffee shop, we found that it was the one day a week when it was regularly closed. However, they had placed a picnic table and benchs on the sidewalk. There was a big sign saying that Ohenro-san were welcome and to take anything that we liked. There was tea, a big bowl of various kinds of candy, coin purses, and kairo packs (bags of chemicals that heat up when you shake them). A sign on the table indicated that all of it was offered as settai.

In the evening, we ran into our first problem. We started calling ahead to reserve rooms and when Ian called Temple #12, which is at the top of the highest mountain in the area and has absolutely nothing but nature around it, we found that they were full on the day that we wanted to stay and on the day after. We made a reservation for the third day and decided that we would worry about it in the morning. Ian snored that night but I barely noticed during the 10 hours that we slept.