The last day was long and short. It was my least favorite kind of Henro-ing, being the kind on roads (in this case, I think we were walking along a highway) and we got lost a couple times. On the other hand, we only walked about 6km and the rest of the time [...]
Free again from the strictures and bindings of towns, we returned to the mountains for Temple 20. Kakurinji Temple of the Crane Forest was a far less arduous hike than the tripe up Temple 12, but it was no less tiring. We started on the road, would up around the base of the [...]
After the relatively easy day, traveling with a fun group and having entertaining conversations, there were only four of us at the Japan Rail (JR) station that morning. Instead of walking, we caught the rail to Choden station at from there walked to Temple 18. Though it wasn't rush hour (as I understand [...]
If every other Henro from our hotel hadn't been on the same bus, I might have felt a little guilty. But. We'd all had a shit-kicker of a hike, followed by a painful night with no AirCon (AC to me), a morning that started at 4am with a rooster I promptly named C'oq [...]
In retrospect, I'm really glad that I hiked the 10 miles to Temple Twelve. By this point, we were doing 10-12 miles a day, so the distance was never the issue to me. The mountain was my issue. To tell a tale out of sequence, I'm currently in Physical Therapy to fix my [...]