Day 18 - Arriving at our next to last temple

As we walked, we started seeing signs for 1 1/2 again. If you have been following this blog, you will have seen the sign the we found a few days ago. At the time we could not understand what 1 1/2 might be referring to. After crossing the river that I showed in the previous post, we arrived at 1 1/2 within just a few minutes and discovered that it was a restaurant chain combined with a shop selling women's clothing and one selling plants. We left our gear outside and went in to eat. However, the place was completely full and we had to go outside again and wait. When we got outside, we discovered that the wind had blown all our stuff over. We picked it up and moved it to a more sheltered location. After waiting for about 15 minutes, we were allowed in. I had a karaage lunch - chicken chunks dipped in batter and deep fat fried. It was quite good. Our waitress kept smiling at us and seemed to like us (or the fact that we were pilgrims), so we got excellent service. After a final cup of coffee, we were on our way again.

Within minutes of starting out, we could see the next temple, Temple #29. It was across the rice paddies, nestled in some low hills. For once, we would not have to climb to the top of a mountain to reach the temple. Actually we approached the temple along a narrow path through the rice paddies - the actual Henro Trail - rather than taking the long way on the road.

This is Ian getting ready to enter the temple grounds through the main gate.
Just inside was the place to wash your hands and purify yourself before entering the main part of the temple compound.
As usual the water was protected by a dragon that was also the source of the running water.
The bare winter trees were just beginning to don a pastel green coat of new leaves. It was very pretty.