October 12 - Matsuyama, Day 2

Matsuyama day 2

The day started of in a rather blah way. Matsuyama is a city and here you are just one of the many. Typical city life I thought. Worst was going to temple 51, Ishiteji. It is for me an arcade of a temple, crowded, tacky, noisy, and commercial. Couldn't wait to leave it behind but couldn't get away soon enough to miss the most disgusting sight of a bunch of guys (They weren't even kids, as if that's a reason to be stupid.) ringing the temple bell as if they were swinging the mallet to ring the bell at a carnival.

But later the tenor of the day started to change. First a lady stopped her car, got out and asked us if we were walking henro and when we replied yes, she gave us 500 yen for drinks and got back in her car to drive off. It's not as if we look homeless or anything. It is her way of saying thank you for doing our work. It is common for people to say, “Gokuro san desu.” It means thank you for doing what you are doing, being a henro, being on a pilgrimage.

Then later on we stopped at a taikai (It's an event to celebrate Japan's national holiday to emphasize physical conditioning, Kenko no hi.) because we wanted to rest and more importantly eat a shave ice. While getting our treats a man sitting on a bench came over to me to tell me that Emi and I could sit on the same bench. To give us room he moved himself to sit on the curb. What a nice guy. So while we were eating our aisu (ice) the woman who sold it to us came over to take my aisu back for another ladle full of strawberry syrup. She had noticed that I did not put enough on; this was a "do it yourself" flavoring. Lastly a man came over to talk to us. I think he had noticed that we were different, and we are. It was a nice conversation...he said that he had a student from Oregon do a homestay at his home. At the end he gave his grandchild some money to give to us as osettai (gift). Lastly he and his family walked with us to the beginning of the trail to make sure we were going the right direction. Emi and I are constantly touched by how nice the people are. Can, is Americans as nice? I think we can be, but it doesn't happen for whatever reason. I hope I can do a random act of kindness at least once a day. Wouldn't that be nice?