Octoer 9

October 9

Records are made to be broken and we broke ours today. We walked 23.1 miles, up and down, up and down, up and down in the Nouso Pass. At least it wasn't raining but it did take 10 hours. No temples today. The weather was actually nice if you weren't in the sun, carrying a pack, or walking up hill. Tonight we are staying in Kumakogen at a ryokan that we stayed at some years ago. We liked it then, and it is still nice. We have our own floor with our own bathroom and washing machine. The proprietor is so nice. When Emi told her that we had stayed there before she remembered us and said that she still had our calling card, the one with our picture and the Golden Gate Bridge in the background.


There was one scene today that was disturbing for me, and I don't even know if it was in a good or bad way. We passed an elderly small frail looking woman who was on her knees alongside the road, her walker parked next to her. Here she was, alone, sitting in the sun, and what do you think she was doing? She was weeding the plants that were growing along the curbing that separated the walking area from the road, the public area. You could try to fill in the blanks: Why was she there? Did she have to do this? Was she getting paid? Does she do this everyday? What? Why? Who? How? I didn't know if I should have been happy or sad for her. Though she didn't see us coming, her head literally buried into her work, I made it a point to say konnichiwa. It was all that I could do.

During the lunch period we were passing through a small town. Crossing over a bridge I noticed the man in a wheelchair fishing even though the stream was some 50 feet down. Exercise in futility I thought to myself, but I guess that's what you do in a small town.. Across the bridge a small corner building had a sign saying udon. So I told Emi that we should eat. The couple running the “store” was nice; I think but things could have been better. The place was a mess, and when Emi went upstairs to use the toilet she said it was even worse up there. They took forever to make the udon, 15 plus minutes, and when it finally came it was just udon in hot water with a bowl off to the side with some shoyu and ginger in it. And for all of this they charged 500 yen each. This is the only time when we felt overcharged. Further, it was her personal goal to send all the henros in one direction even though they wanted to go up the easier path, the one that she said was not the true path of Kobodaishi. The shocker was that she took in guests at her place. The thought of staying there makes my skin crawl, and she's in the henro michi guide book. Oh yeah, that man in the wheelchair came by when we were there and they showed us the fishes that he had caught that day. Amazing.