walkabout-japan

Day 20
Ryokan
GPS: N 32 °, 57.634 ' E 132 °, 46.578 '
Place: Enko-Ji, 39th temple
Etmal: 21 km
Total: 449 km
Nearby the 39th temple of the 88th temples pilgrim's tour of Shikoku, I find a traditional Japanese inn, a Ryokan for 6,000 ¥ (50 €). (1,200 years ago the Buddhist Kukai has worked off more than 88 temples and finally found enlightenment.) Today more than 100,000 pilgrims per year do this trip asking to be forgiven (O-Henro-san). (Those people having a full account of sins, for example like me, have to do the tour counter clockwise.) Anyway, being in a Ryokan is like living in a family with an own room. My favourite one after nearly three weeks of icy coldness: - the boiling hot Sento - a communal bath. Mama-san is doing my laundry promptly; the washing machine is as usual outside of the building. I am walking around with clothes which are traditionally worn in a Ryokan: a "bathrobe", a quilted jacket and clogs. As the inn is fully booked with pilgrims easy to identify with their white clothes, sharp straw hats, walking sticks and tinker bells, I can take my "variations" of Sushi, Sashimi and mixed pickles with beer and sake in my room. After the rice's cake filled with sweet Soya and Gembai-Cha (tea with pop rice) the comatose knock follows immediately. Since I've done my National Service I have still been wondering about the fact that on mountain huts and obviously also on pilgrim's huts people start in the middle of night (5.00 a.m.) to make noise. Maybe they are afraid that the mountains or sins have gone when the morning comes.


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