• Shikoku 88 Day 4
• Temple 18 – 21
• 53.53km by bike, 3.2km of walking, 808m of elevation gain
• Overall progress: 195 of 1200km ish, 21 of 88 temples

It turns out that after waking up at 6:15 I didn’t manage to get on the bike before 8am. A breakfast buffet seemed like a great chance to continue my Olympic eating efforts but alas perhaps that and moving around the hotel just took time.

The air was brisk this morning and the city was full of students riding to school, parents dropping kids off at childcare and plenty of commuters in cars. It was slow going leaving with lots of traffic lights and riding on shared footpath cycle ways seeming better than the road.

After about 45 minutes I happily turned onto quieter suburban streets and saw the odd pilgrim on foot. Just as I was leaning my bike against a tree in the car park at Onzanji 恩山寺, Lin came around the corner so we went to the temple together. When I was leaving a kind Japanese woman gave me a bottle of special water from a famous Kagoshima onsen as an osettai. I noticed it was good for health which seemed fitting. Lin gave me some sweets and a muesli bar but sadly I couldn’t remember where my Air NZ lollies were to give him something in return.

It was a lovely cycle through fields and quiet streets with big traditional style houses to temple 19 Tatsueiji 立江寺. Scenery like this combined with nice smooth asphalt and pleasant temperatures has me grinning away these days – simple pleasures. Today did include some more random sights though:

The temple had colourful banners and a lush garden. A local woman came to give me some snacks as osettai and wish me well. Her daughter was taking a group of students to Auckland for a short study tour soon. She gave me a cute card wishing me bon voyage, a Kit Kat and Choco Pie. I saw Lin just as I was leaving for the final time.

On the way to Katsūra some linesman were trimming tall bamboo from a cherry picker. Impressively, there were five flag waving staff to stop the traffic for this – two at either end and three in between about ten metres apart. The red and white flag waving theatrics was much more exciting than New Zealand’s stop go signs, and they wished me well as I passed.

Apparently dinosaur fossils have been found around Katsūra so the roadside rest station has embraced them and there were several large concrete creatures outside. I had some delicious udon for lunch before no longer being able to put off the next tough climb up to number 20 Kakurinji 鶴林寺.

The route took me up and over the hills so it was only about halfway up I could leave the bike and most of my luggage (hoping no monkeys would try to open the panniers) and continue on foot. As I was walking up the road voices called out to me and a Japanese couple popped out from the walking trail. They were in their mid seventies and it was their sixth time coming up to this temple. The husband was a farmer while his wife had recently retired as a nurse. They were excited to hear I was from New Zealand, and showed me some photos of a walking holiday to Switzerland. The man had even done the Honolulu marathon at age 65! He laughed when I explained I’d been a sprinter. They explained that I really should take the walking trail to see the amazing view down to the Naka river, that I wouldn’t be able to see from the top. I was glad I did, it was indeed stunning:

The temple grounds were the most immaculately swept and the trees were stunning. Legend has it that when Kūkai visited in 798 two cranes were protecting a statue with their wings, and so the symbol of Kakurinji is a crane. The attendant told me this was unusual for a temple, and that cranes are a symbol of longevity in Japan.

Time was ticking by but the fast descent was fun and in no time I was cycling beside the Naka river I’d been looking down on. It really was beautiful, and often the road was nice too. It did vary wildly from a wide new-ish road to a narrow bumpy dark corridor in the dark between trees.

Tairyūji 太龍寺 would have involved another huge climb, so instead it was time to catch the cable car up. I bought a ticket just as one was leaving, and rode up with a small motley group of Japanese pensioners and a staff member who gave us some commentary. While the effortless ride felt great, I don’t love heights! I really hoped there wasn’t an earthquake in either of my ten-minute trips. Chatting to the pensioners was a good distraction though and they said they’d seen me on my bike at some stage from their vehicle and waved. They were from Hamamatsu, Shizuoka and seemed to have grown up around the corner from where the Honda factory first began – quite the claim to fame.

The temple was picturesque and I was grateful for some pathways offering alternatives to some of the many steps. After about 40 minutes of going through the rituals and then taking a few photos it was time to head back down. The cable car staff gave us hot kinako (mushroom) tea as osettai, and the pensioners eagerly glued themselves to the front window as I looked at the far horizon.

I inhaled some snacks and set off for today’s final leg, via a convenience store for dinner and breakfast supplies. It was a bit of a grind, but I finally arrived at Green House and it was amazing! Miwa was a kind and gentle soul, and she invited me to eat my dinner and watch TV together in the main lounge. My room was cheerfully decorated, had a nice fluffy towel, and there was even a foam roller in the corner!! I do love a foam roller…

I was glad to be the only guest, and enjoyed chatting to Miwa while I ate my dinner, but my cold has really escalated. One ear didn’t pop after descending from temple 20, and my sinuses are completely blocked. It’s forecast to rain tomorrow but I’ve only planned 24km so I can at least relax until check out time. Feeling proud that I’ve made it through these first four days and especially successfully managed the two big climbs. I think I’m getting the hang of things but I just need to keep healthy. I went to sleep listening to the chorus of frogs outside my window, laughing about kaeru no uta (‘the frog song’) being one of the earliest things I learnt in form 1 Japanese.