October 4

October 4th...half time report

Score: Shikoku 750 miles, The Tom's 350 miles
Time: 24 days down hopefully 26 to complete
Injury report: Feet blisters are healing. My neck is hurting somewhat. No substitutes allowed.
Temples: 39 temples visited, 49 to go.

Play by play action of a typical day:
4:45am Emi gets up to go to the bathroom and does not go back to bed
5am Emi turns on the TV and I wake up. It is time to pack, fold up the bedding, do our stretches, and just enough time to play a song or two.
6:30am breakfast
7am on the road.
10:30 to 11:30 looking for some food which might mean stopping at a 7/11 type store, to eating packed musubi, to actually finding a restaurant to eat at.
3 to 4pm arrive at our lodgings tired and so in need of a hot soaking bath
4 to 6 Take a bath, Emi does the laundry, I write, pass out for some minutes.
6pm dinner
7:45 sleep

It was a good thing the minshuku owner gave us some musubi today before we left. In the middle of the day there was nothing, no restaurants, no vending machines, no stores, nothing. A rice ball a piece was going to be lunch. It was another 19 mile day, but better than most other days because of the clouds, even though it rained on us for the first hour. Also the route was in large part little used narrow roads that curved through the valleys and mountains ending at Enkoji Temple. If we weren't so tired we would have enjoyed the view.

More dis 'n dat

Breakfast is so pathetic for people who are going to be walking for 6 to 10 hours. Typically it is one ume (shin fan mui for you Chinese), some pickled vegetables, a pile of tiny dried fishes and grated daikon, a piece or two of kamaboko, miso soup, dried seaweed, rice, a raw egg, and tea. It is a great breakfast only if you're on a diet. Oh, and o course I don't eat raw eggs.

A lot of rooms don't have keys. Can you figure out why? It's because they have sliding doors.

Japanese toilets take up less room than a western toilet so when there is a switch from a Japanese to a western toilet the cramped quarters become downright claustrophobic. Sitting on the commode my knees are literally smashed up to the opposing wall, the hardships of being a henro.