April 25th. We had only started the pilgrimage on April 9th,just over 2 weeks previously and we could be on our last day. It was something, that I was surprised to note, that I didn't want to consider. I had been focused so long on just completing the pilgimage that I was a little afraid of what would follow.I would lose my purpose and of course, it would also move me closer to leaving Japan. It was nice to travel in Japan,while I was doing it, I still felt as if it was just a holiday and I would be returning to Muroran at the end of it.
We woke up to rain and everything was soaked, in fact the rain had started to soak through the bottom of the tent. It was time to get up!Luckily near to where we had camped,there was this concrete structure, we took shelter under there and preceeded to dry everything out. When it looked like we wouldn't get anywhere that day we decided to go back to the onsen and also do some laundry in the next door coin laundry. I never knew that being clean and having clean clothes would give me so much joy, but it did. It was always so nice to be clean and warm.We had lunch in the onsen and decided to have an afternoon beer. I know a lot of people will find this hard to beleive, but we hadn't been drinking a huge amount.And I felt that the time had come for a real holiday tradition to commence, that of drinking in the afternoon. After all this was going to be a rest day, the weather was still looking really dodgy.
After we finished washing our clothes and ourselves the rain did stop, it was still grey, but we decided to see if we could get a bit further. We weren't feeling the hitch hike love outside the temple so a train to the general area of Yashima ji (no.84). We walked to where we thought a youth hostel was, but it had closed,several years earlier. A lady stopped and gave us directions to a park and off we went.The park wasn't ideal, but we dumped our bags and went to take a look at the local shops. I ending up buying a top from Uniqlo, I wanted to feel like a normal person, someone who had a house to go home to after her shopping trip.On the way to the shops, we had walked past a sports park, with a nice empty area around the outside. We investigated and decided that this would make a better camping site than the other park. We retrieved our bags, ate our soy joy bars for dinner and set up the tent. Maybe tomorrow would see the pilgrimage finished, we would certainly make progress as we were only 3 kms fromYashima ji.
The next dawned bright and fair, it would be nice to pack up everything dry. We set off on our walk to Yashima ji, which of course was uphill. it was our usual start to the day,with prayers and namecards completed. I always left a namecard at the first temple of the day, I had some idea that if anything happened to me, that people would be able to track me through these. Of course this being Japan, nothing did happen to me.
The next temple,Yakuri ji (no.85) was only 5kms away and despite down the 1st hill and up another, we decided to walk. The walk down was really steep and a little slippery from the previous days rain, but we were ok. We took a mountain railway to the top of the 2nd hill and said our prayers. It felt good that this was already our 2nd temple of the day and all before noon.We loitered in the car park and got a ride with a single gentleman henro to Shido ji (no.86). Here we were very lucky to run into 2 ladies who took us to Nagao ji (no.87) and Okubo ji (no.88), the end of the line. It was very strange to be at Okubu ji, it was a place that we had been working so hard to get to, without having any idea of what it was like or of how we would feel. We left our sticks at the temple to be burnt and returned to the car for lunch. The ladies then said that they would take us back to no.1 and we could really finish in Shikoku. However, in order for us to really finish the pilgrimage we have to go to Wakayama prefecture on Honshu to go to Kobo Daichi's grave. Unfortunately there would be no time for that on this trip,even though we were finishing up 2 days ahead of schedule.
We arrived back at Ryozen ji (no.1) in Tokushima prefecture about 3pm on April 26th. We said our prayers and received bracelets from the 2 ladies and said our goodbyes. We had our photo taken a few times as there was a photography class there on a field trip. We then took a few minutes just to sit and think about the past 2 1/2 weeks. We got talking to this couple, he had walked the pilgrimage before and she was just starting by car that day. We wished them well and then left. We were going to try to get to the expressway and get a ride to Matsuyama. We got a bus, but had to wait 45 mins for the connecting bus to take us near to the expressway service area and so we started walking again. Then the couple from the temple drove past and then turned back, they stopped and asked us where we were going. We said that we wanted to go to Matsuyama, they were only going to Imabari. They decided to take us 3/4 of the way across Shikoku before dropping us off at a service area before their turn off. So we gratefully piled into their very nice mecerdes and watched the kms roll by.
At the service area, we were waiting outside with our trusty whiteboard when I guess Betsy got tired of waiting, she accosted this lady,who surprised her husband by agreeing to take us with them to Matsuyama. They were so kind and dropped us off outside the Toyoko Inn. We went in, got a room at a discounted rate and went to sleep. All in all, a good day.