Shikoku 88 – Days 5 to 8

Day 5 started with me getting up at 6 only and not earlier, as in on the parking lot on the inland outskirts of Tokushima there was no way I could get a nice sunrise photo… so I thought I could „sleep in“ a little.. I drove to temple 18, and continued with the temple tour… as usual I took my time at each temple, and especially at the mountain temple No. 20. Finally I drove to temple 21, which can be reached also via a ropeway… what a nice chance to get flying and see the landscape from above… and what a nice temple that is!

The evening of day 5 I wanted to drive to a nearby Onsen again… but my cars engine would not start… it had shown some strange behavior when starting up for the last few times, but would always get its act back together and work fine, but for that Onsen drive, it started briefly but as if only 2 of the 3 cylinders would work and then shut down… So a few WhatsApps back and forth with the owner of the RV rental company, Tamura-san, and it was clear that the next day would be a day off of my planned schedule… we got picked up by a tow truck, hauled back to Tokushima to a big car repair shop, and after 3 hours of hard work they concluded it is not a fast fix… so Tamura-san offered a normal van as a replacement, which he converted within one hour to a kind of RV… took out the back seats, came up with solutions for covering the windows for the nights, and even provided a big mobile power pack.. And then he put that replacement car on a truck, drove it the 3 hours from Osaka to Tokushima arriving there at 7 PM, and then put the small Nissan RV on the truck to drive back to Osaka. Wow, thank you very much Tamura-san for this service! So as of today, I am driving a Toyota Voxy, much nicer, bigger and with a bigger and more powerful engine 🙂

Day 7… back in business… I could continue with temple 22, and made my way further down the coast of Tokushima prefecture… along a very beautiful coastline with many photo stops… and during a coffee break at a beautiful secluded ocean bay, I went for a swim – on November 1! Nice! This time I was putting up camp for the night at a parking lot right next to the ocean just below temple 24. After sunset and setting up camp, I went to the coast again looking for the stars. And I thought… what is that red thing there in the left corner of my eye? Looking there.. I saw, in an almost black sky, a red moon rising out of the sea. Wow!! Unfortunately, it was not possible to photograph that properly, I have tried, so it will just be a memory in my mind…

Now today, by the way I am in Kochi prefecture now, it was again sunny and a very beautiful day. But somehow the feeling here is different, the climate and the vegetation seem more southern, sub-tropical, I almost feel like doing a round around Hawaii.. the ocean waves, palm trees, open car windows… I don’t know, usually one would think of a pilgrimage as a tour with at least a little bit of suffering, but, while of course the temple tour is meditative and done in calm mindfulness, I don’t suffer at all. I am perfectly fine camping in the car, if not in Japan where else would one feel safer alone on a parking lot somewhere on the dark coastline. And, since I am not suffering schlepping my rucksack for kilometers without end through the scorching sun, I really enjoy the beautiful landscape, the towns, the people I get in contact with… The day ended with a landscape highlight… the Ioki Cave and gorge, just a few kilometers before Kochi City, is right off the walking pilgrims path, but I doubt that many will walk through it with their backpacks… plus it is easy to miss… And, of course, the day ended with Onsen…