Distance: 12.5 Miles
Temples: 34-35
Lodging: Shiraishiya Ryokan
Continuing our plan to ease into the trip, day two was another short walk at 12.5 miles. The morning was crisp and cool, in the upper 30s and lower 40s, and Aldin's decision to start the day in shorts and a T-shirt elicited comments from three people, including two strangers on the street. This was to become routine on the trip.
Breakfast, including rice w/raw egg and yummy tomato
At lunch time we hit the neighborhood convenience store with a wide variety of pretty decent food, not at all like the USA. As always the most fun was finding a crazy looking drink to go with your lunch.
As we sat on the side of the road eating our lunch a pilgrim with an awesome hat and staff came walking by. In talking to him we found out that he had walked the pilgrimage 71 times. We later found out that he did so while sleeping in his car, so each day he would walk half the day, then turn around and walk back to his car, then drive up to the point he walked to. We also got to see him with a utility staff, which was threaded on one end so he could attach various tools in order to do trail maintenance. "Mr 71" became the topic of many conversations and awe-inspiring calculations.
On our last day we exchanged name slips, which are a pilgrim's business card. As first timers our name slips are plain white paper, but the more times you do the pilgrimage the fancier your name slip becomes. His were gold, which is the second fanciest, when he breaks 100 he'll get fabric ones.
The back of his name slip showing 71 walking and 10 driving pilgrimages
As we left the town of Kochi the walking was pleasant and the weather agreeable.
Temple 34 had a guardian of childbirth, where women pray for an easy delivery. After a successful birth a ladle with the bottom knocked out is giving as an offering.
Temple 35 was a nice little temple on a hill overlooking the town, and all the stairs that entails. The real treat, however, we almost left without noticing....
As we sat resting our feet we noticed that one of the statues had a door in its base. What could be in there? After squeezing through a tight passage that seemed to go on for an impossibly long distance we found...
...a tiny altar inside the base of the statue. It was one of those spaces that you just don't want to leave.
