The first day in Crete. Back in the beautiful town of Chania, which I saw the first time in 1967 when I was 10 years of age. With a group of Boy Scouts we were hiking 5 weeks across the island, which had little tourism at this point in time.
Today I walked 29 km (final total: 1062 km) back to T1 Ryozenji, where my o-Henro journey started on September 27th 2023. The day began with heavy rain and cold temperatures at 7 degrees Celsius. About noon time the rain stopped and in the afternoon, when I finished the day some blue sky could be seen and impressive clouds made it finally a good day to end. A good moment and a surprise was, that I meet 2 Japanese men at Ryozenji again to whom I had an important connection. It were exactly those two men who encouraged and supported me, when I was exhausted and slowly walked up the steep hills to Shosanji on day 3. I walked jointly with them down the hill and saw them later on during the long journey a couple of times. Danjo Masayki and me at Ryozenji (T1) Morimoto Hirokazu and me at T1 An young Austrian couple whom I met also a few times at the end of the tour A rainy start of the day at Horinji Back at Anrakuji temple, were I stayed the first night of my journey Later in the day t...
Koya-san Koya-san On November 28th I visited Mount Koya to formally finish the o-Henro pilgrimage. I had visited Koya-san a few times before. It is a spiritual location and also visually very appealing. On November 30th Christiane and I were invited by Ikuyo-san and Kenji-san to celebrate my successful finalization of the o-Henro pilgrimage at their house. Ikuyo and Kenji very very supportive during my journey for which I can not thank them enough. They gave to me a Daruma doll as a present which now stands in our house as one memory of an exciting trip to Japan Ikuyo and Kenji, big supporters of my journey Celebration at Ikuyo and Kenji's house I got a Daruma as a present Ikuyo-san prepared a wonderful buffet for all of us The Daruma doll is standing for good fortune. The eyebrows of the Daruma are formed by cranes and the beard by turtles. Both animals are representing longevity. Personal wishes are written in gold on the Daruma (e.g. accomplishing goals are written on the...
Distance: 27 km (total: 149 km), altitude: 350 m, sunny and later cloudy at 26 degrees Celcius. I walked from Pandaya minshuku at Byodoji temple to Oyado Hiwasa (traditional old Japanese house), together with 3 fellows (Japanese, French, Austrian) who joined me already the last two days. We were all staying at Pandaya and had dinner and breakfast together. This day we reached the seaside for the first time. I enjoyed this place at the beach At the beach Resting hut with my three walking fellows of this day Kato-san, the "French Man" and Stephan People living close to the ocean are prepared for tsunamis Even in very remote areas you may find vending machines, reducing the amount of water you need to carry in your backpack Beach shortly before Hiwasa Oyado Hiwasa Guest House Oyado Hiwasa Guesthouse sleeping room
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