Day 5: Kamiyama-T16
I’m writing this later than usual for me tonight as my informal walking buddy David asked tonight’s ryokan to serve dinner at 18h00 - I’d not met him before a few nights ago when we were assigned the same table for supper at T6, but he’s been at the same hotel for 3 of the 5 nights on the trail so far and we’ve become friendly, which is cool. It’s to the point where we’re being mistaken for each other, even though he’s English/clean shaven/has hair and I’m Californian/beardy/bald.
Anyhow! If yesterday was the toughest day of the trail (based on elevation gain alone, not to mention the cold, rainy weather yesterday), then today was one of the longest. Likely 28 km total, with a very rude uphill climb right out of the gate; I’m pretty freakin’ tired, but it was a good day.
Something’s been at the top of my mind today: flaws. When my stampbook got wet yesterday, that sure as heck wasn’t something I had intended or wanted to happen, but the more that I think about it, the more beautiful it is, somehow. Entirely of its own accord, the book got wet in a really interesting way: the first 30 pages are so are somewhat damaged at the top of the page, but only towards one corner; more interestingly, the calligrapher at T12 took the time and trouble to try to dry the T12 page (each temple has its own, preordained page in the book) before writing in it, but that didn’t entirely work - it looked fine upon leaving the temple, but overnight as the book dried further, the top character started to fuzz out (imagine a lens going slack, the character going out of focus). It’s flawed, but in a way that’s meaningful to me because it reminds me of that day on the trail.
I won’t go into the whole notion of wabi-sabi here (there’s a Wikipedia article for that, thanks) but it’s a fairly simple conceit: that there is beauty in flaws and in things that don’t last. (It also reminds me vaguely of what I believe was a medieval European idea that every proper religious work of art should contain at least one flaw as a reminder that only God may attain perfection.) A perfectly dry stampbook with only perfect calligraphy is in a sense nothing special; I’m sure that your average bus package tourist (of which there are a lot here) has one of those. But how many pilgrims have something that’s flawed in a way that reminds them of their personal experience of the trail?
Last night’s lodging, Sudachi-an, was a perfect example of everything you’d want from a hikers’ hostel. Friendly owners, three cats, warm, dry, with laundry and simple, effective food (Japanese curry for dinner, Western staples for breakfast). I had a small private room to myself upstairs that had a far better than average quality futon, more like a folding mattress, and just enough space to repack all my stuff and dry all of the things that got wet on the trail.
Tonight’s lodging, on the other hand, is a ryokan in the city of Tokushima that’s a very good example of the style. It’s very slightly worn at the edges and has a sort of 1970s vibe, but the owners are friendly and dinner was absolutely huge, with everything from sashimi to white miso salmon, carrot soup, sesame blancmange, tea, and even homemade kimchi. Absolutely delicious.
So how was today’s trail? Good. It was about 20 km from the inn to the first temple, which meant quite a long time in the forest before eventually coming down to the valley floor and the first small town, which was filled with homemade human figures doing various things (pretend traffic cop, old couple feeding birds, etc.). My favorite was a huge Ghibli appreciation tableau:
Charming, no? There was even an extremely fancy public toilet (heated seats, washlets) as well a vending machine with hot milk tea; I was very happy to stop there for a while.
Most of the walk was level or slightly downhill from there, which made for easy walking and plenty of time to contemplate things. I stopped for lunch at a very good restaurant around noon; I had a massive tempura lunch for $9 and (more importantly) got to stay out of the winds for a while and rest up (and hydrate like crazy). It really is so much easier to travel in Japan these days - the first time I was here we didn’t have phones that could translate written Japanese & that’s absolutely huge.
There were four temples to visit today; the first was also clearly a great place for pilgrims to rest up after having walked about four hours to get there from their previous night’s lodgings.
I effected a costume change here, getting out of my rain gear and warm jacket and switching into pilgrim mode lite. The white vest (hakui) I’m wearing says 南無大師遍照金剛 on the back; it’s usually in printed black, but mine’s embroidered in gold thread because I like how it looks. The thing around my neck is a wagesa, which is kind of a tl;dr version of a Buddhist stole as it’s relatively short. I also have a conical hat thing not pictured here; given my relatively enormous head, I had to find a shop that would custom-make the thing that fits inside the hat which allows it to sit on my head. (That’s why I have kind of an indentation on my head in this picture!). Also not pictured here is a kit bag with Sanskrit characters on it which contain my stampbook, incense, candles, name slips, and that ridiculous Flash Buds lighter which is probably going to fall apart in another day or to. (Pilgrimage supply stores have more lighters on sale than most head shops so it shouldn’t be difficult to find another one.)
What I’m not wearing or carrying would be the traditional walking stick (I have walking poles that work better for me) or prayer beads (given that I’m not reciting sutras, just reflecting, I think it would be inappropriate for me to wear those).
Anyhow! T13 was charming as a small road cuts directly in front of it, so it had the feeling of coming up on you rather quickly. The wind was really fierce today, so lighting candles and incense was a hell of a challenge; most of the time, managing to add one lit candle to the enclosed cabinet of candles would result in all of them blowing out. Grrr. But at least it wasn’t raining and I remembered all of the steps in the rituals (except for the ritual purification at one, but I won’t say which one so that you can’t tell on me).
Awa Kokobunji, T15, was the big surprise of the day for me. There were two pilgrims in front of me in line for their stamps; they had a conversation with the monk in the office and I gathered that they were buying tickets to see the garden behind the temple, which I didn’t know about out, so I did the same, and whoa: that garden was beautiful:
It wasn’t big, but damn if it wasn’t cool. It’s a dry pond surrounded by all kinds of intricate rockwork; it’s the first garden I’ve seen on this trip like that. I loved it.
The other two temples didn’t speak much to me; T14 was difficult to negotiate as it was built directly on a rock formation (but it had great vending machines); T16 was at the end of the day and was so windy I spent some time cleaning up the water ladles at the purification station for them.
Tomorrow, Amazon is delivering new shoes to a convenience store near the main train station in town; I can’t wait to try those out. The Hoka boots don’t seem to be getting any better (but I haven’t been able to try to modify them because I haven’t been able to get them in my room due to cultural issues around dirty outdoors footwear in hotels). I’ll try to stretch them my hotel room tomorrow - but I hope the new Salomons will be more comfortable. My blister farm seems better today, but it also looks worse than anything I’ve ever seen before - it’s practically PCT hiker-level disgusting now. Not posting pictures of that, thanks!
Random notes:
It’s great to be in a country where people keep offering help, unbidden. I would’ve blown past T15 if a tour bus driver hadn’t waved at me to turn left, for example.
Tomorrow I’ll go back to hiking with my full pack. I think it’s about 11 kg heavy, which isn’t ideal, but it’s what I’ve got.
Wildlife sightings: a Japanese marten yesterday, I’m pretty sure. Lots of birds and even a few cats today. A good day for sure.