Day 31: walk safely!

„Walk safely“ is the advice of elementary school children to Henro pilgrims when descending out of the mountains down into the direction of Matsuyama. And actually it was a long steep walk down, with many small lose stones on parts of the trail. And here it happened the first time: I fell backwards on my but (shortly after I had taken the below photo), luckily without consequences. It reminded me, that something can happen any time which may end your journey. I was lucky so far (except the dog bite) and the pain level in the legs and the shoulders and knees was not relevant to be mentioned. Also, I was not suffering from blisters. 

So everything is good so far and I hope it remains this way until the very end.

Go savely!

Looking down from the mountains towards Matsuyama (the picture is not very good also due to weak long distance visibility, but it still gives an impression and if you zoom in, you can recognize the city, which I will reach tomorrow).

View from the mountains towards Matsuyama

Maple leaves are getting red already in the mountains (I guess „momiji“ will be most beautiful starting middle of November in most parts of Japan.

First signs of "momiji"

Joruriji Temple (T46)

Most interesting at this temple are 3 old Chinese Junipers ("Ibuki") which are estimated to be 1000 years old

Weather was cold in the mountains at 8 degrees Celsius in the morning. Later the temperature increased to 18 degrees Celsius. First it was sunny, later it got cloudy.
Altitude today still: 310 m (most of the way however was downwards from 700 m to 100 m).
Overnight stay: in Chochin-ya hostel very close to the temple. Here, no food is provided. Walking 2.6 km further ahead, there is an road side okonomiaki restaurant

Eating okonomiaki

Owner of the okonomiaki restaurant

Walking distance today: 27 km (total: 698 km)


Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Day 4: I am tired

Image
Distance: 20 km (total: 87 km), time on the road: 10h, altitude: 310 meters, sunny and only partly cloudy at 29 degrees Celsius and almost no wind. I am so tired from the last 4 days and will sleep shortly. I am tired The private house we stayed in is just opposite to temple 17 and very nice. It has only four guest rooms. Just see todays party at the evening dinner. No one is younger than 60 years of age. The oldest (Matsubara-san) is 76. He walked o-henro more than 10 times and said, that he is famous because of that and will shortly be in TV. Joint evening dinner with "the Frensh man", Matsubara-san and Kato-san Entrance door of Temple 17 Start at 6:30 in the morning. It goes steep up into the mountains. Stephan ahead, he will disappear soon. Dolls in Kamiyama 0n the resting bench you can see the water stains from my wet trousers (from sweating)
Read more

Day 48: the circle is competed, I arrived back at T1 and thus my journey is finally over

Image
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 the c
Read more

First Day in Japan: Osaka

Image
It is my first day in Japan. Osaka was still as clean as I remember the town. The people on the street were well dressed and the whole atmosphere was peaceful and relaxed. In the evening I had a nice yakiniku dinner with former Bayer colleagues. With former Bayer colleagues at Tajimaya Yakiniku Restaurant in Osaka Presentation of the beef ...enjoying the evening    
Read more