April 19, 2025

Day 10: T23-Mugi

Much to my amusement, the pub at the hostel last night had the exact same whisky that I bought at Costco on my last day of work in San Diego as a special treat to myself: Nikka From The Barrel. Looking for something a little bit less, uh, powerful, I went for a glass of Chita on the rocks instead. That was absolutely delicious; the company slightly less so, but you can’t always choose your drinking partners in hostels. A retired Dutch woman was keen to make conversation, but I didn’t feel like saying much at all; she was enjoying something rather complicated that the bartender was happy to make - and I think I heard her vomiting in the middle of the night but I can’t be sure. (It might have been the older Japanese man staying there hacking up a lung instead. Who knows? At least I got back to sleep quickly.)

All in all, I’d rather not stay in hostels, but business hotels; the cost difference is minimal, about US $15 more for an actual hotel room, but I did feel like I wanted to experience different types of accommodation along the way, hence that hostel. As far as they go, it was more than decent - my private room had an exceptionally comfortable bed, but walls were a touch thin and the room was (in?)conveniently located opposite the toilets, so I was privy (pun intended) to more goings-on than I’d prefer…

Sadly, there was no breakfast in the morning, so I decided the best thing to do was just to hoof it on over to Yakuō-ji, temple 23, and start my day with some good old fashioned reflection, so I threw on my temple garments, walked a few minutes over to the temple, and did just that. Unfortunately, a previous worshiper decided for some reason to burn the worst smelling incense I’ve ever smelled; they were huge, expensive sticks of the stuff, so I guess someone is in a mood to bring the bling this morning, but… ugh. Vomitrocious. I was very happy to head back down the mountain to the stamp office and add another one to the collection, completing all of the temples in Tokushima prefecture in the process.

What next? I was hoping for breakfast at the temple’s restaurant, but it didn’t appear to be open (and their onsen appeared to be closed through the end of the month, sniff), so it was off to FamilyMart instead. I ran into the three European women I’d encountered at a couple of previous lodgings, bought a bunch of stuff, and had my first encounter with the weird smoothie (?) machine that was supposed to turn a frozen afternoon tea thing into a delicious slushie, but which didn’t really do much at all. The Kurobota pork bao (don’t @ me, I know that’s probably not the right Japanese word for a steamed bun, but it’s how I know them) was exceptionally delicious, however, and I felt sated enough to repack my bag (off with the temple clothing, on with the regular hiking stuff) and get going.

I’d decided to ignore the most commonly walked henro (pilgrim) trail and instead go via the Minami Awa Sunline instead. This road was constructed relatively recently - dang it, I forgot to make a note of when exactly - but offered some spectacular views of the Pacific coast here and there. Understandably, it was very popular with motorcycles and tiny go-fast cars, which made walking it somewhat frustrating, especially in the one tunnel along the route, as they’d suddenly speed past you without warning.

A few kilometers into it all, there was the first of four ‘observatories’, this one nice ‘n big with toilets and a vending machine. It also had a number of posters that reminded you that it miiiight be a bit cruel of you to abandon your unwanted pets here…

Eeesh. The lot was filled with bikers hanging out; I even saw a BMW bike that looked a lot like my partner Dan’s! Cool. I skipped the vending machine thinking the next three observation areas would have them too; instead, I drank a bottle of royal milk tea I’d bought that morning and ate a flaky pastry filled with red bean paste. (I love red bean paste!)

From there, the walk continued up and down with good views of the Pacific; it was about 20 km from the start to the end of the thing. I was hoping to leave it for a more traditional henro trail towards the end of it, but there were huge signs up from the local town council asking you to please not do that due to multiple landslides. No worries, can do!

I was getting thirsty and had only a 500 mL bottle of Evian (somehow cheaper than any other water, go figure), realized that stops 2 and 3 had no facilities, and was really looking forward to the vending machine at 4, which turned out to have toilets, but no vending machine. Drat. I took my shoes off to let my feet relax a little bit, finished my water, and started in on a teriyaki chicken and egg sandwich; while I was eating the second half of that, I heard a loud noise immediately to my left, felt something brush my hand, and realized that a fucking eagle had just swooped in and grabbed the tiny bit left of my sandwich. Whoa, dude. No scratches, no injury at all - those things are precise! I did go use the toilet sink to wash everything carefully, though, figuring that couldn’t hurt…

From there, it was maybe another to the Shell Museum, which thank God had a vending machine - I enjoyed my first Coca-Cola on the trip there, yay. The museum itself was pretty meh, but whatever, it was nice to put down my pack for a bit and wander. And then it was only a short walk to my minshuku, or inn for the night; I’m currently relaxing in a yukata after a nice hot bath downstairs and my clothes are drying after a quick trip through their coin-op washing machine. I’ve also run into the same English guy again - which is great! He’s staying here as well, so I reckon we might wind up chatting over dinner or breakfast, we’ll see.

Random notes:

The hotel in Kochi confirmed that they have my new 31-wide shoes ready for me when I check in on Wednesday. Yay!

Speaking of which, I’ve rebooked the next week to add an additional zero day (so I can recover from foot stuff) and so that I can do two day trips instead of three days’ walking to cover the temples east of Kochi (four of them). That’s a lot of train time for T27, but that one is way up a mountain, so I’ll be much happier doing it with a light day pack instead of the big heavy one I usually have. Plus, that leaves plenty of time to visit the Monet Marmottan gardens. Hey, even if it just sounds marmot-related, you know I wanna see it!

Just before the shell museum, there was a humongous compound that I think is something like science camp for school-age kids, but which was closed at the moment. Definite Battle Royale vibes there!