Day 4: Kamojima to just after T12
Eh, I’m going to mess with the numbering again - sorry! This was the 4th day of walking, so it’s day 4.
Woke up after the first full night’s sleep since arriving in Japan, which was wonderful. I stayed in a hostel - I think the least expensive room I’ll have rented on this trip, a whopping $34 for a private room with a Western bed and a toilet down the hall + a bath upstairs. It might not have been even remotely glamorous, but whatever: it was scrupulously clean, the innkeepers were friendly, and it was close to the train station. The main reason I stayed there was simple: they have an arrangement with the only inn at the end of today’s hike to transfer luggage at no charge - and I wasn’t keen on carrying my full pack up the mountain!
Breakfast was surprisingly good for about $5: a small green salad, two homemade donuts, an omelet, and a mug of coffee. Not bad! I checked out, made sure my bag was in the right place for the transfer, and took a small day pack along for the day. I carefully placed my stamp book in a dry bag as it was going to rain all day long, made sure to add lots of snacks from 7-Eleven, and packed all of my warm clothing and rain gear as well.
It’s a good thing I did as it went from fairly cool and damp to downright cold and rainy over the course of the day. There were a couple of times where I could feel a damp, bone-chilling freeze coming on; thankfully my down jacket and wool T-shirt worked okay just as long as I didn’t stop walking for too long.
It was only a couple of miles to T11, where a small Japanese tour group invited me to join them in chanting sutras at the main shrine, which was wonderful; it was so generous of them and I was glad for the experience. From there, though, it was going to be 15 km to the next temple, with six so-called henro korogashi sections. That means “places where pilgrims stumble” - they’re notoriously steep or difficult and that was going to be extra tricky due to the rain; everything was rocky, slick and kind of treacherous.
It took just short of five hours to complete the walk; there were a couple of good places to stop for a snack (first some kind of weird meat roll with a faint mustard tang; the second a mugwort-mochi thing filled with red bean paste (my favorite!). That seemed to help as did drinking a lot of water; I was pleasantly surprised that I was able to make it up (and down, and up - the trail had a LOT of elevation gain and loss) the mountain with minimal fuss. Tiring? Hell yes, but the blisters behaved themselves.
After finally arriving at T12, I was disappointed to find that my dry bag had failed; my stamp book was partially wet and the nameslips I’d packed were verging on unusable pulp. I again joined a tour group at the main hall; lighting candles and incense was nearly impossible given the inclement weather. I tried to warm up for a bit with a bowl of udon and two small cans of hot chocolate from a vending machine, but I was tired, everything was wet, and I was very much looking forward to getting to tonight’s inn, another hour plus walk down the mountain.
I did slip and fall a bit on the way down - slick rocks everywhere - but managed to remember to kneel and not fall in a really bad way, so it doesn’t seem so bad - my knee’s slightly dinged, but nothing terrible. The innkeepers were lovely, I’m currently trying to dry everything out in my room, and I started laundry a couple of hours ago, so chances are good I’ll have some warm things to enjoy in the morning.
Speaking of which, tomorrow’s an exceptionally long day; the inn has agreed to send the heavy bag along to my next lodging for ten bucks or so, which is great as I’m kind of weary after today’s uphill slog. The day after tomorrow, I’m back in the city of Tokushima, so I’m thinking it would be a good idea to make my life easier by switching things up a bit and switching hotels to somewhere closer - and maybe even take a taxi to the next temple just to give myself a bit of a break. I’m not sure yet - I’m generally a completist when it comes to hiking - but if I’m as sore as I am right now in the morning, then I’ll probably do that. After all, on some level I’m here to enjoy myself; I don’t need to run myself into the ground to do that, now, do I?
Random notes:
Still no cats, save for a super cute tea mug at tonight’s inn (and builder’s tea in it, yay!). I did see some dog walkers, though, in the city before arriving at T11.
I’ve been enjoying chatting with the English PCT hiker for the past couple of days - we walked together a bit and would catch up at rest stops. Cool dude! A bit older than I, also retired, and pleasure to chat with.
I almost took up the innkeepers on their offer to drive me down to the onsen down the hill in the village, but decided I was too tired. All of this exercise also means that my back seizes up for a bit at the end of the day; ibuprofen and time fix that, and hot water probably would, but I need an hour lying down first to recover.