Saturday, October 22, 2016 – Temple 52(Taisanji), Temple 53(Enmyoji), Temple 54(Enmeji), Temple 55(Nankoko), Temple 56(Taisanji)

Today was a good test of our rain gear. It pretty well rained steady all day. It was a bit of a pain to take off our wet gear at the temples and try to do some semblance of the temple routine.

Needless to say, it was difficult to take pictures with all of the rain. Here are some of the the pictures from Temple 52.

There was a wheel in front of the main temple that you could spin, which I suspect had the heart sutra on it.

We then hiked to Temple 53 in the rain. It was a slog and we sometimes got splashed by the large trucks hitting the puddles as they drove by. It sure makes you appreciate the nice days.

I was able to take a few pictures of Temple 53, while taking shelter under buildings. They are not the best pictures.

We then headed to the train station to take the train to close to Temple 54. Here are some photos from the train station of the schedule and how to board and exit the train, since didn’t have the chance to take any flower pictures.

At least it was dry in the station to take some pictures.

At Temple 56 it was still raining. The Temple monk who was doing the calligraphy in the stamp book had a small white poodle sleeping next to him. It made me think of how Hanako and Chibi (my Yorkies) are doing back home.

Here are some of the other  photos I was able to take from Temple 56 while taking shelter from the rain.

The series of cups hanging is the rain downspout. The water is channelled from cup to cup, til it hits the ground. It works well in controlling the water from the roof.

On the way to Temple 55 (which was close to the hotel we are staying at) I passed more Halloween decorations and was able to duck under a roof to get a photo.

When we got to Temple 55, the rain started to let up finally. Here are some of my photos from the temple.

At the main gate they had some interesting statues.

Sorry, didn’t get to take any flower photos because of the rain. As usual there were lots of flowers and beautiful Japanese gardens along the way.  So I thought I would include one of the beautiful sakura (cherry blossom) photos from my last pilgrimage.

Hopefully, tomorrow the rain will let up. Glad we are staying in a hotel tonight, so can use the washer & dryer to wash clothes and electric hair blower to dry my shoes and gear, for the next big rain test.