Well, I'm back · 11:21pm Jul 29th, 2014
Yep.
It was fun. Tiring as all hell, though. SO MUCH WALKING.
I did learn a few neat things about myself, though. Namely that I am much fitter than I thought. It took several days for the exhaustion and pain to really hit. The fact that this coincides with the climb to the twelfth temple, Shosanji, the climb of which takes about six hours and is nothing but a large number of uphill and downhill climbs, as well as being the first section known as 'where a pilgrim falls over' has nothing to do with that. I'm sure.
Also, I may be as crazy as I joke I am. Walking the pilgrimage involved a lot of time alone. I started hearing things. I was hearing cars where there couldn't be cars, and full-on conversations. Then, there was a woman's voice calling my name. That was all the prerogative I needed to get the fuck out.
So, after reaching the 23rd temple, I went backwards from the last temple (temple 88). I made it temple 51, Ishiteji, in the city of Matsuyama. Then I spent several days just lazily enjoying one of Japan's oldest bathhouses. Why wouldn't I? I don't think I'd get a chance to enjoy a national treasure like that again any time soon.
Anyway, here I am back at my grandmother's place. Um, yeah. Uh, expect updates in the future, I guess.
Welcome back, sounds like you had a nice trip.
I imagine you'll want some fast food or something when you walk (will you be walking back?) to the city?
Perhaps City Wok?
dohohohohohohohoho.
Glad to hear you enjoyed it. Aren't auditory hallucinations just the best?
Did the voices tell you to start fires?
So did you walk the whole thing? I got confused at the 23 then walking backwards to 51 part?
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I walked 1 to 23, then got a train to 88 and walked backwards from there.
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If there's 88 temples on a single road in Japan, they must be like our pubs out back- A town we passed had 4 buildings: 2 houses, a pub and a toilet. :)
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It's a 1200km trip from 1 to 88.
You walked how long! holly hell i doubt i could have made it your something else man.
Life is filled with surprises.
Iike this one time i want hunting with my friends.
I took down a wolf pack. With my bear hands!
Still got the bit marks to prove it.
Good to hear you had a good time. And now you got stories about going slightly insane