Henro- Sukumo to Uwajima

Over the next 3.5 days of walking the Henro, my total distance is now at 439 miles walked.  In terms of scheduling and planning accommodations, it has been one of the most difficult times for planning.  We are currently and thankfully coming to the end of what Japan refers to as Golden week, where they have 4 holidays grouped together and everyone is either off traveling or things are closed.  It’s a little nerve racking when you’ve walked 21 miles for the day to finally reach your destination to find out places are overbooked.  So far, it’s all worked out though.  

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Parmalee School record holder for the most miles ever logged for the run/hiking club.  I’m a proud Dad seeing him accomplish hard things and helping me condition my own feet for the Henro.  Because of all the miles we’ve logged together leading up to this walk, my feet have held up way better than I could have expected.  

Deodorant spray in our hotel.

It makes me nervous to know what the anxious smell is actually caused from 

Never could figure out why they designed the roof this way or what the building was built for. Keep in mind, I’m walking a quiet trail through a lot of small towns and fishing villages.  What probably seems pretty boring to most, becomes interesting when you’re given this much time with your thoughts.

Our path has started picking up some designated walking tunnels.  These are not small tunnels either.  Some of them are pushing up to a mile long.

It’s funny when you walking a path on a forest trail, and you soon find yourself in a very dated and endless strip mall.  Not sure if it’s ever busy but there were hardly any people here.  

Uwajima 

Our path had a landslide.  This was our detour up and around it.  These hills we’re walking are quite steep.

I feel so big here.  Everything I see in Japan is a smaller version of what I’m used to seeing.

African/Japanese themed bathroom.

Okayama & Kyoto

​For the last couple days that Jason was in Japan we decided to take some time away from walking the Henro, and do a little sightseeing.  Even being on the most remote side of Shikoku, the public transportation is fairly efficient. We started our day at 6am walking 16.5 miles arriving at temple 38.  In order to get to Kyoto, we had to take a bus for two hours arriving at a train station in Nakamura. Fifteen minutes later we were on a train for two hours arriving back in Kochi.  We immediately transferred to another train out of Kochi heading towards Okayama.  

Okayama is on a different island than Shikoku (Honshu).  To get there, the train crosses the Great Seto Bridge which was incredible.  We spent a short evening in Okayama and hopped on a train moving 200 miles an hour to Kyoto.  During all of this with no exaggeration, we passed through at least 200 tunnels with a total distance of more than 40 miles under ground.  This bridge was built in 1988 and spans over 8 miles

Torii Gates

After touring around Kyoto all day, I decided to treat myself to a massage.  While laying there half asleep, every phone around started screaming Earthquake….. Earthquake 😳 

Being on the 5th floor of a building at the time, you could feel the building moving like crazy.  After about 20 seconds, everyone went about their business like nothing happened.  It was an experience I won’t ever forget.

Kyoto at night

This was a creative way to design a bathroom.  It was actually quite functional as well.  As you can see, the shower/tub faucet works for either the tub, or the sink.  The tank for the toilet was also incorporated into the countertop.

I contemplated going to measure the depth of these apartments.  It took more width of this building to build the stairway and breezeway than it did for the living space.  

Thank god they’ve got instructions on how to use a toilet.  I finally now know I’ve been doing it wrong all these years 

The difference traveling in Kyoto /Okayama compared to Shikoku has been culture shock. Holy tourist everywhere.  

I’m actually looking forward to returning to the quiet trails of the Henro.

Henro- Days 19-20 (Temple 38)

At 20 days of walking now, the distance covered from Tokushima to the Cape of Ashizuri is at 365.71 miles.  

Day 19 was one of the more difficult days of this trip.  We walked over 20 miles in the rain and spent the entire evening thereafter trying to dry back out.  Out of all the things I wish I would’ve packed, a really good umbrella is one of them.  So far, I’ve purchased 4 of them now.  The ones you can buy at the convenience stores are okay, until the wind comes along to ruin them.  

Outside of the umbrella, it took a bit of effort to locate some playing cards which I really enjoyed our evening’s sitting around playing Rummy and 31.  

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Walking in the rain. ☔️  

The only time it wasn’t raining on day 19, was inside the 1.2 mile tunnel we passed through.  I never thought I’d be so excited to see a tunnel.

This public bathroom was quite comical.  It had the world’s longest toilet seat, and the world’s smallest toilet all in 1 little room.  

Traditional Japanese dinner.  The Mackerel was quite delicious.  I’ll be honest, I don’t know what I’m eating half the time.  

A common Japanese breakfast.  You get miso soup with every meal.

This is a common thing served for breakfast.  It’s sardine minnows (Shirasu) served on top of daikon radish.

Lots of beautiful views of the coastline along way.

Here around Temple 38 is close to the halfway point on this walk in terms of distance.  We’ve definitely covered a lot of ground so far.

On day 20, we walked with Kento for several hours arriving at the Cape of Ashizuri. After stopping at the only restaurant we saw for quite some time, I decided to treat our new friend to lunch as a nice gesture.  In return, he went and bought me some whale jerky to try which I have yet to open.

Henro- Days 17-18 For Your Journey Buddy

Days 17 & 18 added​ a little over 43 miles bringing the distance total to 329.31 miles.  For these days, the weather has great.  The path has been bouncing in and away from the coast as we keep heading south down towards the bottom tip of Shikoku, at the Cape of Ashizuri.

It seems as time passes in life, we find ourselves having less time for our friends and extended family.  Everyone gets so wrapped up in the hustle and bustle, they find it too difficult to make the time or effort.  Jason was my best friend in High School. I am incredibly grateful he made the effort to meet up in Japan and take part in my little adventure around Shikoku.

It was pretty interesting watching how these guys were planting garlic cloves.  They had a rolling table so they could drop the cloves in the trough. Then, the roto-tiller would perfectly take the dirt from the high part of the rows, and burry the garlic quickly.  

I guess if you’re a farmer, you might be thinking…..Duh…. but when you’ve never watched it done, it’s fascinating to see how efficient and quickly they were able to move.

I see these little Suzuki van’s everywhere.  I just laugh every time I read their slogan written on the door.

Had another great dinner.  As many of you would know if you’ve eaten many meals with me, I sometimes like to request the server to bring us their favorite thing on the menu.  Here, we are enjoying beef tongue 👅.  The table had a grill and we cooked it ourselves.  

It’s amazing how you can be walking in the middle of nowhere, not see anyone for half the day and then come up upon a nice facility which is not only clean, but has a heated seat for your comfort.

So far, this is the only bunny I’ve seen