2019-03-16: Day 2 – Ready for another day….

After a nice soak of my feet in the hot springs bath last night and using my Aveeno cream ( which my mother would use on Dad to help heal his bed sores) my feet feel much better this morning. Ready for the 23 km walk planned for today. I started out early, right after breakfast at 7 am, so I can take my time and have some rests to cool off my feet to help prevent blisters.

Breakfast was nice. I am enjoying the Japanese food.

Had breakfast with Elsa and Jes a Danish couple. They were very nice to talk to and are walking the entire pilgrimage.

As well at breakfast there was a group of ladies who were all wearing these white knitted hats. I commented how nice they were and before I knew it she was giving them away. She reminded me of my mom who use to knit and Mrs Daley, my mother’s next door neighbor, who passed away at 90 years old. The last time I visited her at Christmas she was knitting dish clothes. She was knitting one a day. She gave me a couple. I realized how small tokens of appreciation can mean so much. Here was this older ohenro woman who wanted to give me one she made as osettai. Since you are not supposed to refuse osettai I humbly accepted it. When I started to walk I was thankful the rain had stopped, however, the wind was so strong and cold. My head and ears were freezing. So I said what the heck I am going to wear my new knitted hat. Who cares if people will laugh at me. I needed something to pull over my ears to keep them warm. So I wore it all day. I met her at the next temple and she was so pleased to see me wearing it. I took her picture.

All I can say is, it is the smallest gesture that can go such a long way. I continued to run into her at the temples and she point at me wearing her hat she knitted and smiled. We exchanged nameslips and I gave her one of my crests.

I stopped at a local convenience store and had inari and a bun for lunch with a can of hot Royal Milk Tea.

It was nice to see the trees flowering and the daffodils in bloom

When I stopped to take the last cherry blossom picture a nice lady came out and asked when I was from. We talked about the beautiful sakura starting to bloom. She gave me some candies as osettai.

I made it to Temple 11 and had some time to relax before checking into the Ryokan I am staying at tonight.

After a hot bath, dinner, blog update it was off to bed early to rest this sore body. However, it was a good life and of sore and feeling exhausted.