Saturday, October 8, 2016 – Temple 22 (Byodoji)

I was awaken early this morning around 4 am by the loud heavy rain. Yes, it was pouring in buckets. Breakfast was at 7 am. Before taking the ropeway back to Tairyuji Temple we walked to Lawson’s to see if Bob could get his debit or credit card to work. Bad news, both didn’t work. Then we went to 7 eleven and he could only get a cash advance on his visa credit card of 30,000 yen ( about $300 CDN), which we think is his cash advance amount per day. So, we will be on the lookout for 7 eleven convenience stores so Bob doesn’t have to beg for alms from a rice bowl.

The heavy rain had let up by the time we walked back to the onsen where we stayed, picked up our bags and took the ropeway to the top.

We started our way on the old henro trail and started to climb. I said to Bob, something is wrong, we are suppose to be walking down and under the ropeway. Bob just pointed up at the ropeway wires over head. So we continued on. 

We came to the sitting Kobo Daishi statue. There was a chain to climb the rock face to get to the statue. We didn’t want to try it since everything was wet. Instead here is a picture of Bob with the statue from behind.

The weather turned out  OK with clouds, some light rain and some sun. The walk down the old henro trail was very quiet and peaceful. There were only a couple of places where there were ropes to hang onto from falling. As well, there were lots of statues along the trail.

I lost my umbrella, so had to buy a new one at 7-eleven. Here is a picture of me sporting my new umbrella.

It took us about two hours to hike down. It was so nice to walk next to some of the streams with small waterfalls. We stopped for lunch at a rest hut at the bottom and cooled down our feet. As we got close to Temple 22, there was a beautiful field filled with cosmos blooming.

Here are some of the pictures from Temple 22.

Today Bob was able to answer my question “Where is Buddha?” just as we were completing the Spiritual Awakening phase of the pilgrimage.

Tomorrow we will enter Kochi perfecture (province) which is the Ascetic Training phase of the pilgrimage.

When we got to Hiwasa it was too late to visit Temple 23, so just checked into the Business Hotel (which was booked solid because of the matsui celebration). We went to the Circle K convenience store and picked up a bento box for supper and something for breakfast since the room has a fridge.

I ended the day having a nice bath to soak my aching muscles.