Day 23: Nakatosa-T37
So dinner last night was totally fine if somewhat unremarkable; the cheap, laminated English-language drinks menu set the tone somehow - compared with, say, Kitchen Mitsuka a couple of weeks ago (a one-woman guesthouse with far better typographical sense), it felt more like I was eating at diner than a luxury hotel. Worse yet, I misread the yukata situation yet again and felt sartorially out-of-place, whoops. That being said, the sake was good, the food was fine, and there was a lot of it. I am definitely a fan of seared bonito at this point; load it up with raw garlic and onions, some salt, and okay, it’s damn good.
I slept well, although that futon was definitely on the extremely thin side; thankfully I do like a hard mattress, but it is a little weird to wake up feel that you’re sleeping on the floor quite so acutely! I was up early enough to use the onsen, but they’d swapped sides between the men’s and women’s baths overnight, which means the men’s side was the ehhh side with no real view to speak of, but again: totally fine. It was pleasurable to sit outside in heated seawater and listen to the sounds of the Pacific.
One thing which went through my mind a lot on the trail was the idea of room tone, but for an entire country. Japan doesn’t sound like other countries to me - it’s incredibly quiet. You’re on a train with sixty schoolgirls? Quiet. You’re on a bus? In a restaurant? At a roadside station? Pretty much anywhere? Quiet. And when you’re out walking in the countryside, listening to everything as the day passes starts to feel like you’re listening to a Chris Watson album in a way - there are recurring motifs (birdsong, water, distant trains) and things slowly cycle through as you move closer to a river, away from the river, up into the forests, down into the rice paddies… all the while accompanied by the steady sound of your boots on the pavement.
Another recurring thought today was taking the time to mark sections of the henro trail from A to F, from most pleasurable to most annoying. Today was mostly A with no major annoying parts; the first two hours went up from the Pacific shoreline to the top of a pass:
It’s a little bit difficult to see without zooming in, but you can see the newly-constructed expressway crossing a river valley - and a tiny rock just off of the beach from where I started today’s walk. There was no one else on that trail; the last kilometer and a half was narrow dirt, badly eroded, with one bridge missing & therefore kind of difficult to navigate. Totally worth it, though, even the last 200 meters or so which were nothing but steps so steep as to almost be unmanageable. At the top of the pass, a derelict gas station with two vending machines and new toilets next door, so hello, big bottle of iced coffee with milk, yum. And then it was time to get on with the rest of the day: another 12-ish kilometers, so maybe three more hours of walking. That bit was less charming; much of the second half of it was next to a busy highway, but it was good enough. A tiny train station had just installed a fancy new toilet block next door, festooned with cloth koi flags; that was much needed and a nice place to take a break briefly before eventually stopping by a post office to buy stamps (first time I’ve done that in I can’t remember how long!) and then a supermarket to buy a red beans and cream bun and an Earl Grey tea latte. Yeah, not super nutritious, but what the heck. I had meant to keep going until the convenience store another two k along, but I was hungry. When I finally did get near the convenience store, it was across the street from an enormous roadside station which seemed a far better option - but I wasn’t super hungry, so I just had a rice ball from the same excellent place as yesterday’s breakfast - the same as yesterday, even, and damn that was good, as was a bottle of locally produced black iced tea, the first time I’d seen black tea unsweetened since I arrived in Japan. Great stuff!
I arrived at T37, Iwamoto-ji, within an hour, and as I was staying in the temple lodgings, asked if they might check me in early. They could! They also graciously allowed me to use the coin-operated laundry before it officially opened at 4, so I did - yay, clean clothes again. Sadly, the public bath was too crowded to actually use, but at least I had clean clothes to change into before visiting the temple proper, do Temple Stuff, and get another stamp in my book.
As you might guess from the above picture, Iwamoto-ji is kind of funky. A Japanese artist named Sheta was invited to decorate a number of things in town, including one room in their guesthouse, which I was lucky to score for tonight. It’s a little silly, but heartfelt. And even better? The temple offers two dinner options: a standard dinner in the temple… or a ticket for a sake brewery a couple of blocks away instead. I’m sure you’ll be shocked, shocked I tell you, to hear that I went for the boozy option. Once I send this email, I’ll be off to get my drank on. Yay.
Random notes:
The next temple is 82 km away; I had originally planned on walking there, but the more I thought about it, the more I though nope, ain’t gonna happen. I’ll shortcut tomorrow a little bit (there’s a train line here that runs past my window at the temple - and it appears to have a loop inside of a tunnel, woohoo) to cut walking down to about 20 km, walk the next day to the most expensive place I’ll stay on this entire trip, a seaside onsen - and then walk to the small city (big town?) nearby (that’s also the end of the railway line). I’ll stay in a Western style hotel for two nights, with dinner; the original hotel I’d booked was Japanese style, inexpensive, and way the hell and gone kind of near the Ashizuri peninsula, so likely uncomfortable and depressing. But I’d passed a huge billboard for the hotel I booked today and hey, I was hooked. There’s even a Montbell on the property, looks like. Yay.
The men’s toiletries in the room last night were both hair tonics… and much to my surprise, I do still actually have hair. I’ve been shaving my head for so long that I’ve forgotten what it looks like when I don’t; it’s been almost a month now since I did & I’m not a huge fan of what’s going on on the top of my head right now. This is going to look weird as hell when I get home next month.
I am suddenly in the land of places to stay with body-washing towels that are also advertising for the hotels. I am trying not to take all of them with me for use around the house when I get back, but failing. Please send help.
Other than Buckfast tonic wine and Chartreuse, what religious booze options come to mind? Iwamoto-ji collaborates on a sake with the local brewery; I’m excited to try that one tonight!