Day 12 - Some final comments

It was early when we arrived at the Lodge Ozaki, only 3:30 in the afternoon. We were shown to our second floor room. It was typical - just enough space to spread out our two futon (matresses) and pile our equipment along the wall. There was an air conditioner but it was really noisy so we left it off. The toilet was new and done in bare knotty pine, but it was shared by everyone on the floor. About a quarter of the rooms were occupied by women, and as far as I could tell everyone was a Pilgrim, with most of us walking. The woman who showed us to our room suggested that we take a bath right away.

We got our stuff together and, on arriving on the first floor, asked directions to the bath. We were told to go out the front door and turn left on the sidewalk. They we were to go down into what looked like an under-the-house garage. The entrance was very steep, about 45 degrees and was just concrete. At the bottom we found a large concrete floored room. Of to the side there was a very small room that served as a dressing room, but the bath was big enough for two at a time. Ian got in first and, after a short soak, went back to our room. I got in with a man who turned out to be 72. We struck it off and I stayed for quite a while chatting with him about the Pilgrimage and why I was in Japan.

All of the guests ate together in a large room on the first floor. This room served as both a dinning room and an entrance hall. Supper was mostly fish (which I gave to Ian) but I found enough to eat.

After supper, we went to the room and both Ian and I wrote in our diaries. My entry for the day is one of the longest, because I spent a lot of ink describing how disappointed I was in the Pilgrimage. I was not getting what I expected and I was physically very tired. I had planned to do a lot of drawing and to spend time exploring both the temples and any other interesting things that we found along the way. However, the reality of the trip was that we were always hurrying to insure that we reached the next night's lodging. This meant that I never had the time to do any of the things I had expected to do. Even if we got to the lodging early, I was tired and soon went to sleep. I commented that taking a few pictures was the best that I could do. I mused a bit about how the Japanese think that pushing yourself will bring some kind of positive results. And complained that even though we walked in silence, there was always something keeping you in the present, rather then meditating on any of the themes that arose. However, at the end of the entry I commented that I was very glad that I had come and it was definitely a good trip, even though it was not what I had wanted. I guess it was a good lesson in Buddhism, especially the emptiness of the Heart Sutra.