July 5; Day Two: Saijo eastward to Chuo City
Yokomineji, oh my. Awake at 5:50, feeling good, I had breakfast and coffee in the hotel, then packed up and retraced my route west about nine kilometres to the road heading up to temple 60, Yokomineji.
A kilometre along, I found this interesting structure and a jinja nearby.
The jinja gate held guardians somewhat similar looking to the Buddhist guardians found in the gates of all Buddhist temples. But these are, I think, Shinto warrior guardians.The road climbed gradually, a comfortable ride. At places it got steep; I got off and walked, at first feeling out of shape. But the heat, already building, and my sense of pacing precluded going all out. And, for me at least, it was important to remember that this was never a race.
There is a small coffee shop along the way, closed for the summer (I think), called Café Tentomushi (Ladybug Café). It and a handful of homesteads were the only structures on the upper portion of the road.
A small shrine with the Kobo Daishi encourages arukihenro.
An intriguing Jinja, no village here now to support it, though it’s still taken care of, and nearby, another standing stone.
The mapbook shows 6.2 km. to the end of the road; still it took me an hour and three quarters to get there, though I stopped a number of times to photograph jinja and standing stones I found along the way.
The last quarter kilometre was quite steep, so I walked it. There’s a small shelter where the road ends, with a spring. The path to the temple starts here. The sign says 2.2 km. Another sign on the trail said 3.5. It certainly felt like the latter!
The path starts out quite civilized looking, but rather quickly gets steeper, with the occasional fallen tree across it.
It’s an exhausting, steep climb, but beautiful, as it winds its way along, crisscrossing the streams of two valleys and round the brow of a ridge, eventually up the top of the ridge to approach the gates. The last kilometre had me out of breath; I would count fifty paces and stop for a minute…
This forest must be lovely in October, when the leaves are changing.
A short portion is paved with freestones, in the same way as a photo I have seen of the Nakasendo, the old mountain road from Edo to Kyoto. I believe it's called 'ishidatami'. Another short, climbing section has been washed out by the creek; new path winding from tree to tree.
Occasional statues of Jiso mark the spots where pilgrims have fallen, some so old that the features on the stone are obliterated. There are perhaps forty on this small section of trail…in places the trail is worn five or six feet deep into the soil by the passing of the faithful.
At the top, as the Temple gate comes into view, so do the gorgeous old growth (Japanese) cedars that surround the temple. The temple itself is nice but small, tucked into a fold on top of the mountain.
I met a young arukihenro there; he told me he was 31, from Osaka. He was feeling blue, he told me, his body was breaking down. He had walked from Temple 1, Ryozenji, in Tokushima, around Shikoku in the summer heat, in 33 days! A smokin’ pace. He had only perhaps 250 or 300 kilometers to go…I advised him to head down to Saijo, and soak himself in one of the famous onsen there for a few days to rejuvenate. The spring water of Saijo is wonderfully clear, sparkling, limpid, and is celebrated throughout Japan.
I was back on my bike by about ten thirty and enjoyed a great coast down to the plains.
Temple 61, Kouonji. Another Umakoshi sculpture. The soft focus is the result of moisture in my camera lens. The rainy weather and moisture sensor in the iphone caused some problems with taking pics.
Temple 62, Hojuji.Temples 61 to 64 are close to the main road running nearby the base of the mountain. The sun came out around 1:30 and it was hot hot hot.
Temple 63, Kichijoji. The large rock with a hole in it is a kind of test or game. The pilgrim, holding their staff in front of themselves, walk with eyes closed twenty paces to try to stick the staff through the hole in the rock. 
Temple 64, Maegamiji, being renovated.
Another shrine at Maegamiji. The small silver dots are 1 yen coins.
After visiting Temple 64, I followed the green dotted ‘culture’ route in my guidebook, up and along small access roads that follow beside the highway. Though they wind up and down (a bit more work!) they are quiet, and allow me a vista north to the Seto Sea, and keep me generally apprised of where I might be…
It’s worth noting that there are three routes marked in my mapbook. One is the traditional walking path, which now sometimes follows modern roads, but at least as often strikes off through the mountains: marked with a dotted red line, not always passable by bike. Another route is considered the ‘cultural’ route and takes local detours for cultural landmarks. Yet another route is considered the ‘nature’ route.
I mixed and matched, more on that later.
Looking ahead, mapwise, I noted the presence of a youth hostel along my route. For a while I couldn’t find it and considered camping, but couldn’t find a place that might not cause alarm at the sight of a stranger putting up a tent…eventually, a few friendly folks directed me towards it, tucked a few hundred meters into a small valley up from a quiet neighborhood. Shin chokokuji is a local Buddhist temple that has been gracing the valley since the Nara period (700 AD).
The temple is small, very beautiful, with a large, recent shukubo (lodging) building in modern traditional style. The shukubo was closed, as they often are during the summer. Most henro walk in the fall and spring, some fewer in winter, as they have to traverse considerable distances in the snowbound uplands. So those are the arukihenro seasons. Summer arukihenro are uncommon, though I saw a few from time to time.
The proprietress was very kind and spoke English fluently, sparing us both my Japanese (though I tried). She gave me a room for Y3300, though there was no food available. I had already bought some bento at a combini, so this was fine with me. When she took me to show me the showers, we passed along a corridor into an older building (early Showa or Meiji) with a nice little Japanese garden, and other living quarters in the back. A beautiful, quiet place.
My room was a traditional Japanese tatami room – my favorite! I find the grassy smell of tatami very relaxing, and sleeping on futon on tatami is much more restful than any mattress…
Even though I didn’t even make it out of Saijo City, this place made a stop worthwhile. This day also served notice to me that mountaintop temples were going to require some planning, timewise.
