2013 Trip Summary

Total Distance Walked: ~160 km (~100 miles)
Temples Visited: 23
Gifts (osettai) received: Green tea, cookies, ¥1,000 (~$12), oranges (mikan), kumamon charm. 
Blisters: Zero



Since it's kind of cool, here's some pages from my "stamp book" (nōkyōchō).

Day Seven

Temples: 23
Distance Walked: 23 km (14 miles)
Lodging: Tokushima Dai Ichi Business Hotel (徳島駅前第一ホテル), standard stuff with a good breakfast.

Never made any audio for this day.  In short, I my body was none too happy with how hard I pushed myself the previous day.  I also failed to note that the route along the sea was quite remote, so I was lunchless until two pm.  Add in a hot, sunny day and I felt every one of the 23-ish kilometers I did that day.

  One way to deal with narrow sea-side roads

 

Beehive 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Rice planting time 

 

 

Moss graffiti

 

 

 

Sea Turtle Spawning Area 

 

If I would have continued on I would seen a lot more of these 

 

Bamboo "Farm" 

Day Six

Temples: 18-22
Distance:  56 km (34.8 miles)
Lodging: Emoto Business Ryokan (えもとビジネス旅館), perfectly decent but way out of the way.

 

 

   Cherry blossom flood!

 

 

 

 

 

 

Narrow bridge over deep ravine + high winds = kind of scary 

 

Palm Trees, who knew? 

 

Only 3k left to temple 22 and the end of the day 

 

 

 

Doing two Mountain Temples in one day means lots of vistas

 

  I saw lots of cemented-over slopes doing battle with entropy

 

 

 

 

"It's turtles all the way down" 

Someone's backyard 

 

 

Do "Look out for forest fires" signs actually help people? 

 

 

 

 

 

Domestic-only phones are one of the many mysteries of modern Japan 

 

 

 

Tsunami evacuation route 

Day Five

Temples: 13-18
Distance Walked: 32 km (20 miles)
Lodging: Minshuku Chiba (民宿 ちば), solid but nothing to write home about.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Can't go to Japan without a vending-machine photo

 

 

 

 

 

Walking through the city

Day Four

Temples: 12
Distance Walked: 24.5 km (15 miles)
Lodging: B&B Yasuragi (ペンション やすらぎ）， nice room good food.

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There were little signs hanging all along the trail- "Pilgrim Path"

Temple 12's lovely bell

"Pilgrim Fall Down (1/6)"

"Please do your best"

"Good Job.  From here the closest taxi company is...."  

Temple 12 statuary, one of many

1200 Year Anniversary of the Pilgrimage