April 14th. The day started early but it didn't start bright. It was pissing it down,and although we were prepared for the weather with our pack covers and rain coats,it didn't make the prospect of being outside any more pleasant. We walked back to the temple, Yakuo ji,and tried to get a lift. We were turned down, this also came as a bit of a shock as it was the first time we hadn't managed to get a ride. Were the gods turning against us?
We decided that we would have to take the train and the bus to the next temple as a ride wasn't forthcoming and the next temple was over 80km away and would take 3 days to walk. No time for that in our schedule!So off we went to the train station, only to miss the train and have to wait 2 hours for the next one, but at least we were under cover. A major bonus. Well the train arrived, we then changed to a private train line and then the bus. Finally we walked up the hill and arrived at Hotsumisaki ji (no.24), we said our prayers,went back down the hill and walked to Shinso ji,(no.25).From here we were lucky to get a ride to Kongocho ji (no.26), but our benefactor wasn't very willing and said there was no time to get to the next temple that day. We completed our devotions and went to the temple office to ask for directions on a place to stay. The monk wasn't helpful at all and very unfriendly. This added to our woes for the day. To crown it all off the rain,which had stopped in the afternoon, looked likely to return and we would be camping in the rain. We started the walk down from the temple to a michi no eki (literally road station in English), I said to Betsy that I finally felt as if our karma was back on track. I was more right than I knew.
We looked at the local restaurant and were walking away when an oji san leaned out the window and waved us into the restaurant. He and his friends bought us dinner! It was a nice change in fortune. We were about to leave the retaurant when a man asked us if we needed somewhere to stay. We said yes, he asked us to wait and said that we could stay at his temple. Great, the gods had relented.