Day 3 Continued further

This is Ian washing his hands before entering the temple grounds. Actually we are already inside the grounds proper because we have gone through the gate, but we have not approached any of the buildings.

This is a group being led in the recitation of the Heart Sutra by a Buddhist priest. Many of the groups that we saw consisted to 10 to 20 people with a priest and/or a tour guide. They moved between temples on chartered buses.
I am not sure without a time consuming check, but I think that this is the main hall at Temple #15. The thing in front with the roof is the incense burner and the place for candles can just be seen on the right.
This is Temple #14. The buildings are all very old and dilapidated. The main hall burned down a few hundred years ago and the remains of the foundation can be seen on the extreme right. I actually liked this temple very much - it had real character.

Day 3 Continued

At Temple #17 we discovered this small six-sided meditation hall. Some day I will have to discover why six sides are used? Why not five or seven or eight? There is probably some sort of esoteric meaning, but it escapes me at the moment.

Walking between #17 and #16 we met an older man and a college student. Ian walked and talked with the student and I with the older man. The man acted a bit strange. For example, I had a map and was able to follow the roads exactly, but he would not accept this and asked someone at each corner which way we should go. He also ignored the sign posts, but as we saw in the last entry, he may have been on to something there. Mostly he talked and I listen, but his conversation was very disjointed and I frequently had no idea what he was talking about - and it was not a language problem. The one thing that became very clear was that his legs ached terrible and they still had to walk about 18 kilometers to Temple #18 near which they had a reservation. We finally got to a place where they had to go left but we turned right toward Temple #16.

If my calculations and memory are correct, this is the gate at Temple #16. It was right on the road and quite small compared to most of the others. Also as with all of the temples from #17 to #13, it was old looking and not at all commercial. The priest who wrote the calligraphy in our book wrote slower than anyone I have ever seen. Japanese calligraphy is usually done with fairly rapid strokes, but he carefully drew each stroke - in slow motion.


As we walked between #16 and #15, we found this very picturesque pump house. I could not tell if it was still functional, but at one time it must have been useful, considering how flat the land was in this area.

As you can see, it had started raining by the time we got to Temple #15. However, Ohenro-san are not deterred by the weather, especially a light rain like this one.

We continued the easy walk and reach Temple #14. Our one problem was that we could find no restaurants or stores, so we were unable to get anything to eat.

Day 3

We got up early as usual and had hard boiled eggs, bread, and coffee for breakfast. We were the first ones there. This picture shows a very sleepy Ian waiting for them to put out the food. They actually baked the bread in a kitchen behind the reception desk, so the smells were almost unbearable as we waited for them to bring the bread out. Because the coffee machine could be operated 24 hours a day, we were at least able to drink a cup while waiting.
We walked to the nearest train station and found that all of the seats in the waiting area had cushions.
There was a sign that said that the cushions had been hand made by the members of a lay Buddhist group. They were actually quite comfortable.

Once we reach the station nearest to Temple #17 we got out and started walking. We proceeded through a built up area with many small maze-like roads. Between our map and the sign posts such as those in this picture we had little trouble finding the temple. However, the sign posts were not as helpful as they might have been. Please look carefully at the following picture.
Did you see the discrepancy? The wooden sign says that it is only 300 meters to Temple #17, but the stone post says that it is 600 meters. Every sign between the station and the temple disagreed with all the others. I should add that the distance was actually closer to a kilometer.

Temple #17 was at the of a short street. The next picture shows Ian standing a ways down in front of the gate to the temple.

When we reached the gate, we were greeted by the following sight. Often the view through the gate was one of the best on the whole temple grounds.

Day 2 Some Final Comments

In going over my diary entry for the day, I found a few things that I do not have pictures of but will be of interest to at least some of you.

In the morning, before breakfast we went to the Shingon ceremony in the main hall. The hall was much more elaborate than the one at Temple #2. There were about 40 people there and, while the two priests chanted, the audience went one at a time and knelt in the center area. I passed on this because it is hard for me to get up off the floor. After the chanting was finished, the head priest gave a lecture about the history of the temple. He told us that about four hundred years ago the temple had burned and the only thing that was saved was a statue of Amida Buddha. When he finished talking, we heard a whirring sound and a metal panel behind the altar area rose. We were then allowed to go behind the altar and view the statue, but photos were not allowed. Amida was seated and was entirely dark blue in color. There were still obvious burn marks in various places on it. Otherwise there nothing in particular stood out.

During the day, my feet started to hurt and in the evening I discovered the first blisters. They were all on my left foot. I never did get more than a couple of very small blisters on my right foot, but from Day 2 onward my left foot gave me trouble. The reason for the asymetry is that, although most people's right foot is slightly larger than their left, mine are the other way around. Shoemakers know this and usually the right shoe in a pair will be slightly larger. This means that for me the left shoe is tighter than the right. I still have the dead skin from the blisters on the ball of my left foot and on my little toe. I also believe that I lost the toenail on my little toe but there is too much dead skin there to be absolutely sure. There may still be some nail in there someplace. If it is gone, I guess I can consider it to be Osettai for Kobo Daishi.

This was the only day that we ate lunch in a real restaurant. There were no convience stores so we could not get our usual daifuku or cake. We were getting resigned to the idea of not eating until evening when we crossed a main road and discovered a large udon (noodle) restaurant. Ian and I went in and ate. I had niku soba (buckwheat noodles with soup and meat) teishoku (a fixed meal that has the entre as well as other things). While we were having coffee, our first of the day, the girls from Saitama U who had interviewed us came into eat. We exchanged smiles, greetings and a few words before we started on our way again.

After visiting Temple #11, we walked a few kilometers into the nearest town to find the business hotel where we had made reservations for the night. We were pleasantly surprised to find that it was new and very cheap (less than 5000 yen, including breakfast). They also had free coffee in the dining area and it was available 24/7. I took pictures of the hotel but not on Day 2, so I will post the pictures on the day I took them.

We went out in the early evening to find supper but there were no restaurants close by. We finally found a family restaurant and ate there. After a so-so meal (exactly what you can expect in a family restaurant) we ordered coffee and desert. When we had finished, we ordered coffee and desert again. Actually we were both still hungry and considered a third round, but decided that we had had enough calories.

When we got back to the hotel, we stopped for more coffee. While we were sitting there, a young man came in and we started talking. He was amazing. He was studying for a Masters Degree in Physics at Nagoya U. He was also a triathalon athelete. He said that in less than a week he had to get back to Nagoya for the univerity's graduation ceremony, so he was trying to do as much of the Henro Pilgrimage as possible. He said that he had started at Temple #1 in the morning and had reached #11 by the early evening. He was planning on going from Temple #11 to #13 during the next day. He was going about three times as fast as Ian and I.

His plans were interesting. During the current portion of the Pilgrimage, he was going to do as much as he could, running much of the way. I should point out that he had a fairly large backpack. After graduation, he expected to go to work and not to have any free time again until he retired sometime in his 60s. His plan was to finish the Pilgrimage after retirement. We had heard that many people do the Pilgrimage in stages and with different portions at different times, but this was almost ridiculus.