Betsy and I slept in the right hand corner of the balcony. April 12th started early as the monks rang a bell at 6am and held their morning service. It was an interesting and unusual place to sleep, even better because it was free.

We walked to Joraku ji (14), Kokubun ji(15),Kanan ji (16) and Ido ji(17),about 8km in all. It was a really nice walk,the weather gods were smiling on us again and the terrain was fairly flat. Good for me.When we reached Ido ji,we decided that at 19km,Anzan ji(18) was a little too far to walk to,so we turned to asking for a ride. We asked these 2 young guys,who seemed to have a large car to themselves. They said yes, then we were about to get into the car when we realised that they had 4 elderly people already in the car. However, that proved to be no obstacle and we were soon safely settled in the car and on our way.From Anzan ji we walked to Tatsue ji (19) and it was on this stretch that we started to experience our second osettai(the first occurred on our last ride to the start of the pilgrimage). Settai is the things people give you,because you are a henro. So Betsy and I are walking along and we get a wave from an Ojisan (generally a middle aged man) in his oji van.And we think nothing of it when he turns around and starts going back the other way and then pulls over to the side of the road. He buys a bag of oranges and then presents us with them, plus a good luck charm he made himself.

We settle ourselves at the side of the road and start to eat. We are then joined by a driving henro,who also has snacks and fruit to share.We then carry on walking and a little further on we are beckoned into a workshop and given tea and snacks.Lovely.By this time it was getting late in the day so we decided to camp under a bridge next to a river.Betsy cooked dinner on her trusty stove and we washed our socks. Betsy scared me a little here.She insisted that we had to set goals for the pilgrimage, or we would never finished in time. I agreed,but wasn't completely comfortable with this. Anyway we decided that we would aim to complete 11 temples every 2 days and to finish the pilgrimage on April 28th.Fingers crossed.

April 13th.We woke early again, but then going to bed before 9pm will do that!We walked the rest of the way to Kakurin ji(20),and it almost killed me!This is the 5th highest temple out of the 88 and at the times the trail was really steep,but I made it to the top.So we said our prayers for the day and contemplated our next move. The next temple was not to far away, but it was down the hill and back up another 1. Then we were offered a lift by Mr Nosaki, a temple worker,which of course was gratefully accepted. He took us to Tairyu ji (21) and Byodo ji(22) and then he had to go back to work. We got another ride to Yakuau ji(23) and finished for the day there, 1 day ahead of our schedule. We were very happy.

Our minds then turned to a place to stay,Yakuau ji is in the middle of a town and there didn't seem to be a park or camping site,well,in sight.We went to the local tourist information desk who told us that everything was really far away and we would have to walk lots. Understandably I was not overjoyed on hearing this. We consulted our trusty henro map and thought we found a place to stay 5 mins from the info office, off we went. We walked into what we thought was a hotel and asked if we could stay. A lovely Japanese lady looked very confused and went running off. She returned with a guy(the owner,it turned out) who beckoned us across the dining area into a tatami mat room and preceded to move the tables around. We understood that he meant for us to sleep there, so ok.We asked about where we could go to have an onsen and do some washing. The owner then showed us his private bath and let us use his washing machine.I was getting dry after my bath when the owner walked in, I think he saw a boob, but I'm not sure.

A little later,the owner beckons me and Betsy to go outside, now we didn't understand half of what this guy was saying,but went anyway. He puts us in his van,with another henro,a guy,and off we go. Across Hiwasa town our good Samaritan has an old bus that he has fitted out for walking henro to sleep in. He had 4 guys staying there that night, he thinks that guys and ladies should be separate,so that's why we got the nice tatami mat room and use of his bath. And he gave us all dinner,and he charges nothing for this. That man has some seriously good karma coming his way.

Betsy and I were seriously happy, we were ahead of schedule and about to leave Tokushima prefecture and go into Kochi prefecture.Life was good and we were doing great!