October 24

October 24...second to the last day

The weather report called for rain in the morning. We were lucky. It only rained during the night. It was about a 21 mile day, but the worst part was that two of the three temples were located on the side of the mountain. I guess that I should have been thankful that they weren't on the top. But the route up to the temples were steep. If you had seen us, we would have looked like two mountaineers attempting to scale Everest. We were that slow. And when you go up that means you have to go down. Unfortunately the trail (michi) down from the first temple was dirt, that easily turned into mud; it did rain during the night. Going down was slow,messy, and outright awful. Emi was worried that she'd fall and get herself muddy; she did and I was tired of getting bit by the mosquitoes (ka) that seemed very hungry. We were walking so far (21 miles), so long (9 hours), we were worried that we were not going to get to the last temple before 5pm, the time when they close, so for the last hour we had the afterburners on. We made it with time to spare.

This is our last night where we will be staying at a ryokan. I'm rather happy and sad about that situation. These minshikus and ryokans are old Japan. I wonder if they will survive these modern times. If they vanish it will be a lost and yet I for one appreciate the luxury and privacy of my own bathroom and eating at my own table, so what can i say? I would be one that would opted for a hotel over a ryokan; I would be one that would bury this old system. The ryokan that we are staying at is over a 100 years old and it reminds me of scenes from the old samurai movies that I use to watch. We have to walk on a veranda that winds around gardens to our room at the rear. Secluded in our tatami lined room I can just imagine the renegade samurais outside of our sliding glass shoji waiting to attack, if not samurais, at least ninjas, or geishas. If these walls could only talk.