March 1, 2008 - Cold & Windy
Woke around 6:30AM. Quickly packed and set out. It's around 70km between T43 and T44 so I wanted to pace myself. No pressure to get to any particular location along the trail. I would stop at noon and then do my search for a place to stay.
By the way, this plan worked famously every day of the trip. Perhaps in a busier time it would have been more difficult to find a place, but during this trip I had no problems provided the Inn was open.
It was sunny and cold, but most of all it was windy.
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| The human squid |
As I became used to the wind I started to appreciate my surroundings. Many trees were either in bloom or about to bloom. I knew I was too early for cherry blossoms but plum blossoms were everywhere. They are not as opulent as cherry blossoms but they contrast beautifully with the surrounding winter colors.
This area of Shikoku has many wood mills. All of them had fires going and as I neared them I could smell the wood smoke. I grew up with wood heat. The smell of wood smoke always makes me think of the warmth and comfort of a fire after a long day of working in the cold. Very nice.
At one point I stopped and stared at a wood mill across the river from me. It had two smoke stacks of differing heights. Both had smoke coming from them, but the wind blew the smoke completely sideways so that the smoke streams looked like two pastel gray lines drawn across the green mountain slope behind them. It was a beautiful image.
I thought about taking a photo of it, but taking my camera out seemed like too much trouble at the time. I can’t wait until science is able to connect a tiny camera to our optic nerves so that we can take photos with our eyes and then download them via a USB connection in our belly buttons.
I did shoot other photos though. Not all are worth showing, but I have to show this one. This is what perplexes me about Japan. Here is a nation that has like .1% of the violent crime that America has, yet by our standards they are morally inferior because they allow pornos to be sold in vending machines. Why don't their children grow up to be serial killers, corporate lawyers and other miscreants?
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| Adult video vending machines. How long would something like this last in America? |
The weather warmed up in the afternoon, mainly because I walked into the mountains and was protected from the wind. Around noon, I met another Henro and asked him to make a reservation for me at Furusato Ryokan (M47.14). I offered to pay for the call at a pay phone but he insisted on using his cell phone.
He was an interesting fellow and spoke English in small amounts. This was good enough to keep us yapping for a couple of hours as we neared to where he was staying that evening. As we walked he would stop and inspect various rocks that caught his interest. If he liked the rock he put it into his backpack. He said collecting rocks was his hobby. I asked him why he didn't choose a less heavy hobby like collecting leaves or bird feathers. He laughed and put another golf ball sized rock into his pack. He reminded me of Tom Bombadil.
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| Even though I was still learning how to use my Canon XT I believe this photo accurately captures the man's character. |
I arrived at Furusato Ryokan around 4:PM. My feet were sore from walking on pavement all day. My right shoulder was in pain as well. It felt as if I had been hit on the shoulder blade with a hammer and the hammer stayed in striking position. This was to prove most challenging because when staying at a Ryokan I was either standing or sitting on the floor. I soon realized how much I rely on my right arm and shoulder to sit down on and get up from the floor. Even though I began using my left arm to push off from the floor it was still painful none the less. I tended to not sit down until I was sure I was going to be there for a while.
The Furusato Ryokan was an old dormitory style inn with high ceilings and cement floors. My sleeping area was a cozey well heated tatami room, but the hallways, cafeteria and laundry rooms were large and cold.
To reduce my exposure to the frozen regions of the Ryokan I started my laundry before my bath, put it in the dryer as I went to my bath and then took it out of the dryer shortly after my bath.
A great strategy except that I didn't watch my tea intake during dinner and ended up having to go pee in the middle of the night. By the time I got to the bathroom I was shivering and my hands were ice cold. Fortunately, I crawled back into a nice warm futon and went quickly back to sleep.
Thought for the day
"I avoided getting help for the pain in my shoulder before my trip because I didn't think it would affect my ability to walk. Not thinking at all about my ability to sit and stand. I need to take care of my body at all times because I never know when unforeseen circumstances may cause a previously ignored condition to become debilitating."
March 2, 2008 - "Just two more kilometers"
Woke around 6:30AM. Except for my midnight trip to the arctic circle I had a great night's sleep. The cafeteria, unlike the night before, was warm and the breakfast was hot and tasty.
The morning outside was cold and sunny with little or no wind. I warmed up nicely after 20 minutes or so. At this point I'd like to mention that I brought a light goretex jacket with me, but because I tend to overheat I didn't think I would need it. Except for a couple of tough mountain trails, I wore it all the time even in the lowlands where it reached 55-60F.
I was very pleased to have had the right clothing in the right amounts for this trip. Nothing went unused and nothing was missing. However my backpack always felt 5-6lbs heavier than those of other Henro I met and yet they all seemed to be carrying everything but the kitchen sink with them?
Around 10:AM I met an older gentleman who owned a rest stop for Henro. He was very friendly and brought me tea.
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| Onigiri maker, myself and a preschool teacher from Nagoya |
He told me that he used to sell charcoal but now he sells homemade onigiri. I told him I thought that was “cool”. After some more talking he decided to give me two onigiri as osettai. This was very generous and I was very grateful. The onigiri were made with rice and various healthy grains. They were packaged nicely and looked delicious. (As I learned later, “looks can be deceiving”.) They were frozen so I put them into my snack bag for later.
Around noon I came upon some ladies making daifuku. It's a delicious confection made from pounded rice (mochi) and red bean paste (anko). They had a human powered mochi making machine. When the women started on the next batch of mochi one tourist asked if he could run the machine.
It was much harder work than he thought. The woman who would reach her hand into the mochi and stir it between hammer strokes was teasing him. "Higher, you're not even as strong as my woman friend." At one point she reached into the crucible without looking when the hammer was on a short stroke. My chest tightened for a second, but she removed her hand before the hammer fell. When it was finished they got cheap labor, he got free samples and I almost got a photo of an octogenarian getting her hand smashed. All is well that ends well, I guess.
Late in the afternoon as I plodded along towards the Sakaeya Ryokan (M49.1) I met an interesting man and his lovely dog. Both man and dog were middle aged and genki.
I asked him (the man, not the dog) how far to the Sakaeya Ryokan. He said "ato ni kiro" which means after two kilometers. I was happy to hear this because I was getting weary. While we walked he talked continually. I don’t remember much of what he said though. I was too tired to keep up with his Japanese. I was reduced to just nodding my head at certain times to appear to be listening.
Regardless, after 20 or 30 minutes we reached a beautiful ryokan that the man was the caretaker of. He explained that it was too late for me to book a room but was kind enough to allow me to rest in the genkan and have a can of cold peach juice.
He explained that when a TV crew was filming a show in the area the lead actress took a liking to his dog. She asked if the dog could be in some of the scenes of the show. So his dog became a bit of a local celebrity. After a couple of palm loads of peach juice the dog was my best friend. I'm sure in his eyes I was every bit as important as a Japanese television star.
As I got up to leave he told me that the Sakaeya Ryokan was two kilometers down the road. Now wait a minute, didn't he say "after two kilometers" about 30 minutes ago? After a double take, I thanked him and headed down the road not knowing what to expect after that.
I wouldn't have mentioned this detail except that over the next few days I probably got that answer four or five more times when asking how far to something. I got the feeling that it was similar to "down the road a piece" or "over yonder". Something you say when you're so familiar with an area that you've either forgotten or never considered the distances between places.
Fortunately or unfortunately, the man was correct. After 2 km, I reached Sakaeya Ryokan. I was both tired and sore. My right shoulder was in horrible pain from the weight of my backpack. I could barely think straight and when the owner of SakaeYa told me that the Ryokan 120 “nen” (years) old I thought she said the cost of staying at the Ryokan was 120 “yen” (apx. $1.20). I was thinking that was a great deal, even if the ryokan looked a little old.
The owners were a man and woman around my age. The man looked very kind and was suffering from cedar allergies. His nose was very red. It was immediately obvious that his wife was the boss. She ordered him around like a servant and he jumped to it like a frightened woodland creature. Even so it wasn't without kindness and they were obviously very compatible.
120 years ago the original design of SakaeYa Ryokan was planned out, but since that time it has changed by fortune and necessity, not by careful planning. The uneven floors, low ceilings, spiderweb like hallways and secret stairs made me feel like I was in an altered reality. It was nothing like my world where everything is new, square, plumbed and planned.
SakaeYa Ryokan made me imagine all the hopes and dreams that so many people put into it over the decades. Maybe that is what touched my heart the most. SakaeYa is a brave example of human hope. The freezing hallways and frightening electrical system may be replaced but as long as the ryokan remains the hope endures.
Thought for the day
"God has written hope on the brow of every man."
Victor Hugo