Day 19 - The last day of walking

The view out the window of my hotel room gave me a good look at the Kochi train station.
Outside the train station there was also a trolley stop. The end of the line, I think. Since our hotel was so near the station we did not need to use any of the local transportation - only the train to Gomen Station.
We took a taxi from Gomen back to Temple #29 and the started along the Henro Trail again. We soon discovered this delightful Shinto shrine, but as usual we could not explore because of the time restrictions.
We walked along the flat valley floor toward Kochi Station, although it was still a long way away. Some of the rice paddies were already planted and some, like the one below, were still being prepared.
There were some wooded areas along the way and this combination of bamboo and cherry blossoms was particularly pretty.

Day 18 - End of the day

Some people chanting the Heart Sutra, with the place for candles in the foreground. Notice on the right you can see the industrial netting that was coverning the building.
Because the cherry trees were truly in full bloom, the grounds were beautiful. This is one of the small outbuildings with flowering trees in front of it.

Some pilgrims chanting the Heart Sutra.
The bell tower. The way the access to the tower was arranged it did not seem to invite people to ring the bell, so we did not.
Ian and I had been around the grounds and while there was certainly much we could learn, we had seen everything. Just as we started back toward the main gate, a young woman approached us. She had a camera and asked in English if she could take our picture. We said, "Of course," and as she took a series of pictures, she explained that she had just gotten the camera and was trying it out. She was an amateur photographer and was taking a course. She had purchased the camera for the class. While she was doing this, three other young women - by young I mean 2os and 30s - came up and introduced themselves in Japanese as friends of the first woman, but they did not speak English. We ended up talking with them for about an hour. We gave the photographer our names and addresses and about a week after we got back she sent us prints of some of the pictures she took. Finally it was time to leave and they called a taxi for us and we left by going back out through the main gate (the next picture). The four of them came out with us and waiting until we were safely on our way.


Our plan was to take a taxi to the station and then a train to our hotel. Then in the morning we would return by train and taxi, so that we could walk to the next temple.

The station was called Gomen, which was kind of funny, because the name (the pronunciation, but not the kanji) means something like excuse me. It was even funnier then we discovered that they had written the name on the station wall in hirogana , a phonetic script. You can see the name followed by the kanji for station on the wall on the left.
At the station we bought tickets and asked about the train schedule. They gave us the wrong information but shortly after came over and corrected it. We ended up waiting on

It was crowded so we stood on the platform with our packs on and waited for the train to arrive. We wanted to be sure to get into the car early so that we could get seats. When the train arrived, the conductor said that we had to use the door at the other end of the train, which put us almost at the end of the line. We got on and did find seats but at opposite ends of the car.

We arrived at Kochi Station and found it to be brand new, with portions still under construction.
The hotel was nearby and had a discount for Henro Pilgrims. We checked in and then went to an izakaya, a Japanese style bar and restaurant, next door. Tomorrow would be our last day on the road and we would return to Sendai on the following day.

Day 18 - In the next to last temple

The main hall was covered with industrial netting, because they were repairing the building, so we could not see it. However, we were able to go inside to do our chanting and the altar was very nice.
This monk, the man in the conical hat, was wandering around the grounds, chanting sutras and talking to people. The woman in the picture later became friends with Ian and I but I will tell you about that in a later post. In the background you can see that a cherry tree is in blossom.
Two pilgrims were admiring the blossoms. I took their picture but we did no more than exchange greetings.
As with most temples, there were little buildings scattered around the grounds. They contained statues or other objects.
There was a large collection of little stone statues, most wearing hats and bibs.

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.