Matsuyama

Hello again. The past few days have been quiet and tiring. Here`s why.

Last Wednesday i had a lazy day in Uwajima and stayed in a hotel staffed completely by fat ugly people which is a rare occurrence in Japan and made the place seem slightly more normal.

Thursday was a 22km stroll with Massa again. We walked in the hot sunshine and saw three very serene temples. At the third temple in the late afternoon sun i met an old Japanese man who was also doing the hike he asked me why i was doing the walk. "Is it to see Buddhism or to travel or to see Japan?" "Yes", i replied. I asked him why he was doing the hike. "I always wanted to see Shikoku. And i`m Buddhist." Then he laughed a little, sighed and looked at me, "My wife is angry."

Earlier in the day i was given 1000 yen by a complete stranger simply because i was a doing the Shikioku pilgrim hike. The giving of gifts is big in Shikoku. Giving a gift to a walking pilgrim is seen as the same as giving something to Kobo Daishi himself and he was the founding father of Japanese Buddhism and the founder of most of the 88 temples on the route. Because of this i keep having gifts thrust upon me. One day last week me and Massa got a haircut and the owner of the place gave us a 75% discount and a bag of fruit and that night we got a discount in a guesthouse and the owner gave me a lots of beer which meant that during the day i almost made a　profit.

Day 28 was a long day. Massa wanted to take a different longer route to the next temple so we said good bye and i walked 38km, sometimes by the main roads through sleepy towns and sometimes through trees and next to rivers. That night i stayed i a free pilgrim hut that had a raised sleeping platform on one side and a canoe, a giant stuffed panda, an electric fan and a some farm machinery on the other. Just before sunset an old man arrived at the hut. He was Suzuki, a 60 year old man from Osaka who was hiking around Shikoku for the first time and seemed amazed that i was too. I was more amazed that he was only on his 25th day and he set off the next morning at 5am planning on walking 40km before another sunset.

I didn`t manage to keep the pace with 60 year old Suzuki so walked through the morning sun, tree filled valley and fertile farming villages chock full of elderly people. Old people are everywhere in Shikoku. There are quite a few school children who cycle past every morning and say hello and there are lots and lots of grandparents but somehow there doesn`t seem to be anybody in between. Where are they? Sometimes rural Shikoku feels like God`s waiting room. That night i stayed in a humorless guesthouse in Kuma Kogen town and saw the half way temple, number 44.

Yesterday was another long day of 37km and a hot sweaty one too. I checked off three more temples and climbed various different hills and forests until late in the afternoon three old women insisted that i sit down and talk to them in their hillside village which was a bit of a problem as their English was almost as bad as my Japanese but we overcame the language barrier somehow and they gave me some food as well as some ice tea. All free of charge, yet again.

And that night was free too. Another pilgrim hut that was next to the toilets in a car park of temple 47. I searched around for a place to buy food and tried unsuccessfully to have a shower in a sink and then this morning walked through the suburbs of Matsuyama, saw four more temples and arrived at lunchtime in one of Japan`s oldest cities complete with trams, old bath houses and a small population of young people. Matsuyama is the biggest city i`ve seen since i left Tokushima 30 days ago but i`ll probably be leaving tomorrow with Muto who`s managed to catch me up (i`m suspecting more "running" has　been involved) so i`m guessing tonight i`ll be getting drunk in a convenience store like a tramp with a traveling bald Buddhist whilst trying to help him learn English. But the beer won`t be free, unfortunately.

Uwajima

I`m still in Shikoku. I`m still hiking.

After i last updated this blog i met Muto again and stayed in a tiny temple for free near Shimanto. The next morning i left him as he needed to do more Buddhist pilgrim door knocking and praying and so i hiked 35km through the now usual landscape of mountains of green, fields of rice and small fishing villages. That night i found a ridiculously cheap guesthouse that was made out of wood, pieces of corrugated iron, spiderwebs and insects.

Saturday started with mist and fog and walking the short distance to Tenple 39 which is right on the most southern cape of Shikoku followed by an afternoon of walking through fog and down pours of rain which attracted many bemused glances and double-takes from people driving past on the quiet roads. One old man stopped and asked if i wanted a lift but i just shrugged and said no as i`m now determined to finish the hike with power of feet alone and so i arrived at a friendly guesthouse in the small town of Shimonokae that afternoon and washed and dried everything and met Massa by chance again and got some food.

Please don`t think i`ve been eating in restaurants and dining out on sushi the whole time i`m here. I don`t even know what a sushi restaurant looks like. I do what all budget pilgrims do and buy cheap food at convenience stores and supermarkets but this is Japan and so it`s impossible to buy anything that`s not healthy. Fish, rice, nuts, bread, veggies, noodles, fruits. The only unhealthy things you can eat in Japan are crisps, chocolates and beer. And beer doesn`t count because it`s, well, it`s beer.

Me and Massa walked together the next day though winding long green valleys spotted with villages, clouds and thankfully, no rain. Massa lived in New York for a year so his English is pretty good but he told me that he learned most of it from watching Dude Where`s My Car, Bad Boys and Beavis and Butthead all the time which tells you almost everything you need to know about conversations with Massa. Nice guy though. We saw Temple 39 that afternoon and stayed in the nearby town of Hirata after raiding another supermarket of fish, noodles, vegetables, bread and beer.

Day 24 of the hike saw a bit of everything. Fog, rain, sun and wind. Roads, villages, forests, mountains, towns, farms and rivers. Snakes, eagles (well, kites but eagles sounds better) fish, dogs, cats, people, cars and, of course, Temples. It also saw a huge amount of sweat and 27km of walking so both me and Massa suffered from some chaffing in that most delicate area of a mans body. Talcum powder was duly sought, bought and used in copious amounts but the walk to and from the supermarket where we bought it was an interesting affair as we both walked whilst tyring to keep each leg as far apart from the other as possible. That night we stayed in a free hostel at Temple 40 that was run by a friendly man called Taka who wanted some help with his English and loved me as result. He took us to an onsen that night which is a Japanese bathhouse/sauna. The three of us got showered and i jumped in to the huge almost small swimming pool sized hot bath where upon four things happened. First, Taka told me that the water in that particular bath was filtered heated sea water. Second, i realised very quickly that salt water and delicate areas of my body that were already quite sore were not a good mixture. Third, i left the salt water bath very quickly and sat in the cold one instead. Fourth, Taka learned some English words he`d never heard before.

Yesterday was a hot sunny morning and a hot rainy afternoon. Me and Massa hiked together again through forests and mountains and ended the day 26km from where we started it in the damp town of Tsushima where we found another guesthouse that was owned by a nice man who wanted us to drink three huge bottles of Asahi beer with him while he played Eric Clapton and Rolling Stones songs on his guitar. This morning was a short hike here to Uwajima where i`m going to have a bit of a rest day and avoid being rained on.

Apparently somebody has been lying because the hike is not 1500km it`s 1200 and the kilometre count is now 645, the Temple count is 40 and somehow, amazingly the blister count is zero. I`m not 100% sure how or why i`ve managed to stay blister free but hope it stays that way. I`m over halfway and the large old city of Matsuyama is approaching so it`ll be good to see something approaching civilisation again soon.

If you`ve read all this then i hope you`re doing okay. Keep in touch and see you soon.

Shimanto

Me: Forgive me Buddha for i have sinned.
Buddha: Confess sweaty pilgrim.
Me: Well, i was in the little city of Kochi on the south coast of Shikoku island in the middle of a Buddhist pilgrimage trek that people are supposed to walk. Only walk.
Buddha: Yes?
Me: Well, the thing is, erm, Kochi city has these trams, and well, i was walking down this long long street and these trams were passing by and i checked my map and they were going to the same place i wanted to be, and, well, trams are cool and cheap and i kind of got on one.
Buddha:....
Me: It wasn`t far though. Just five kilometres.
Buddha: Hmmm. Your only supposed to walk the pilgrim route around Shikoku. Any form of transport is clearly cheating.
Me:....
Buddha: Did you stick your head out of the window?
Me: Hell yeah.
Buddha: Hmmm. Okay. It`s not too bad...
Me: Well, erm, on the same day i, erm, also, sort of, well, got a ferry.
Buddha: A bastard ferry? What next? A fucking helicopter?
Me: No, but, hang on a second, it was a tiny little ferry that just took people and bicycles across a dinky little harbour and it was free. Free public transport. How ace is that?
Buddha: Free?
Me: Oh yeah. Not a single yen was exchanged.
Buddha. Well...hmmm....to be very honest Mr Dave i don`t care because you`re an atheist and this conversation never took place anyway. You`re just writing this to make yourself and your stupid blog look more interesting than they actually are.
Me: Hmmm. You`ve got a point there.
Buddha: And one more thing.
Me: Yes Buddha.
Buddha: Fuck off.
Me: Okay Buddha.

And that`s how i left Kochi last Saturday and in between cheating and not walking i met Massa the guy that had cycled to Shikoku to do the trek. He told me that he`d seen Muto the previous day and that he was looking for me. That day i walked 29km and stayed in a little city called Tosa in a guesthouse owned by a small slightly nutty old woman who thought i could speak fluent Japanese which meant that i just stood around for long periods of time saying yes and/or shrugging as she spoke to me. She was very nice though and as i was a sweaty pilgrim she let me stay for free.

The next day was the 16th day of walking and it was gloriously sunny. I walked 20km and saw two more temples in the morning. At lunchtime i walked past a small beach with guesthouses and cafes lining the small sea road and somebody shouted my name. I turned to see a familiar looking bald man sat under a sun umbrella outside a cafe with a beer in one hand a lit cigarette in the other. Muto. We spent the rest of the day drinking and swimming and getting sun burnt.

On Monday morning me and Muto hiked up steep mountain roads next to dramatic cliffs and had our lunch delivered at the road side by Muto`s 71 year old uncle who lives in Kochi. He was out for the day riding his motor bike. He pulled over on a huge Harley Davidson, gave me and Muto a load of food and drove off again. I asked Muto what job his uncle used to do and he started making gun noises and sounds.
"Police? Army?"
"No, no, no. Er.."
"Terrorist?"
"He making. Gun, rifle."
"Rifle maker? Your uncle used to make rifles? And now he spends his days cruising around Shikoku on a Harley Davidson?"
"Yes." Muto shrugged as if everybody had an uncle that did this kind of thing.

That afternoon we met a busker in a car park who was busking his way around Japan. He started in his home city of Nagoya last September and was walking and playing his guitar everyday. We watched and listened to him play Knocking On Heavens Door as people wandered past to the shopping centre trying to figure out the circumstances that enabled a long haired guitarist, a bald chain-smoking Buddhist and a sun burnt foreigner to be stood together in a car park in a small town in rural Japan. Which is understandable really.

That night Muto got drunk with the busker while i looked for a guesthouse in the town of Awa and found Muto the next morning feeling hungover. He told me that he didn`t want to walk the 26km to the next place and that he was having a rest day sleeping in his tent on a nearby beach. I said goodbye and said i`d call him and we should meet up again on the trek later. I walked along the side of the hot highway with busy traffic whizzing past and arrived at Temple 37 where i found a free place to sleep. An old woman showed me the free "hostel" for pilgrim hikers. It was a big wooden outdoor shelter. On the floor of the shelter was a familiar looking bald man having a snooze, his cigarettes laying on his stomach.
"You cheeky fucker. You got a train."
"No, no, no," Muto said trying not to smile, "I, er, running, running. You very slow."
"Bastard," I countered intelligently. "26 fucking kilometres." I pointed out politely.
"Ah, running, running."
"Makes my little tram ride seem like fuck all and i`m not even Buddhist."
"Huh? Tram? Eh?"
"Doesn`t matter. Wanna beer?"

Yesterday was a long 33km walk with Muto, Massa (who we met again) and a German guy called Michael who vanished into the sunset while we ate ice cream as he was walking way too quickly. Me and Massa found a cheap guesthouse and Muto camped somewhere and then this morning was a short hike to Shimanto city and tomorrow we`ll be heading south to Temple 38. The kilometre count is now 480 and that doesn`t include the tram or the ferry. I won`t tell anybody if you don`t.

Kochi

Hello again. I`m still walking and my feet are starting to hurt but that`s probably because i`ve now walked over 320km in less than two weeks. Who`s idea was this anyway?

Me and Muto left the bar on Sunday morning where he`d spent the previous night and walked 15km that day through lots of little surf towns on the coast. At one large beach town called Shishikuri we stopped on the beach and watched the surfers trying to catch waves. I went for a swim which looked a bit silly as there were hundreds of surfers in black wetsuits and me in blue shorts and a pasty white t-shirt sun tan. I turned heads.

Shishikuri was also home to a cool coffee shop where me and Muto checked emails and drank ice tea. On the way out we befriended two Japanese hippies, one had long hair and a Jamaican hat, and both had big bongo drums from west Africa. They tried, in vain, to teach me and Muto to play while cars drove past and people came and went for coffee. We definitely turned heads there but thankfully i was fully clothed at this point.

That night we stayed in a shed next to a temple called Meitokuji in the fishing village of Kan-noura. The shed was another one of Muto`s free accommodation deals and the temple was run by a big bald man and his slightly aggressive dog called Benkay. The temple was very serene and sleeping on rugs made the shed comfy enough for sleeping, especially when Muto insists that you drink beer before hand. At 5am the next morning the big bald Buddhist monk man started his morning prayers which was a very long chant accompanied with some extra loud drumming on a huge drum in the temple.

I walked 29km that day down the coast with the hazy sun above, the sea to the left, the hills and trees to the right and the black road stretching out in front. At a small town at lunch Muto told me he would stay there for the rest of the day and told me to keep going if i wanted. He had Buddhist stuff to be doing which consisted of praying to people. The old way of doing the pilgrimage on foot hundreds of years ago wasn`t so easy. There weren`t roads or convenience stores or shops and guest houses then so people needed food and money. To get the food and money they would pray at people`s doors and the good people of Shikoku would give them gifts. One day last summer Muto knocked on 3000 doors in one town and came away with 30,000 yen and enough food for a week. He taught me a load of stuff about Japan and Buddhism and Shikoku and hopefully i`ll see him again before i leave Japan. He also gave me the phone number and address of his guitar-playing Grandmother who lives in north Shikoku near the temple trail and told me to visit her. I wonder if she drinks and smokes as much as him.

Day eleven was a long 32km walk along busy roads, quiet forest hills, three more of the 88 temples, farm land and villages with old women sat on benches in the shade nattering and chatting. That night i got to Nahari and found a guesthouse that was shut and walked across the river to the town of Tano where i found a guesthouse that gave me free sushi.

Wednesday was a quick 20km to a town called Aki. It was a wet day and started with a long climb to a temple that was covered in cloud and mist. On the way up i met Massa, a animal drug salesman from a town near Tokyo. He cycled the 850km to the start of the Shikoku hike, was in the process of walking the entire route and then wanted to cycle home. Hearing this somehow made me feel more tired. Me and Massa spent the rest of the day together talking and walking next to the sea as the rain continued to fall until we arrived in Aki and spent the night in a pink hotel that was stuck in a plastic 1980`s time warp.

In the morning Massa had left early and so i wandered through more fishing villages full of old people and sunshine. At one point a car stopped and a man jumped out and gave me two peaches. I didn`t even knock on his door and pray for him. After seeing another of the 88 temples i arrived on the edge of Kochi city where i got desperately lost trying to find a place to sleep and found and guesthouse that didn`t want guests. The owner pointed me down the street to a small hotel where i spent the night.

And so today i walked to another two of the 88 temples. I stopped at a shop for an ice cream and watched a man drive into the car park with two small poodles on his lap which seemed like an interesting driving position. He said hello and i said good morning and started walking again. Two minutes later the same car pulled to a stop just in front of me and the man with the poodles gave me a can of ice coffee. I didn`t have the heart (or the language skills) to tell him that i have an intense dislike for coffee and instead wandered on down the street looking for a homeless looking hobo to give it to. I realised that i was the most homeless looking hobo on the street what with sleeping in sheds and drinking beer every night of the week and carrying my life in one bag. I tried to offload the coffee to a nice old man who was sat under the shade of a tree but he wasn`t interested. Neither was a woman and her small daughter but a old woman who worked at the temple that i finally arrived at accepted after i insisted.

Now i`m in central Kochi which is a dinky little city but the biggest place i`ve been to since i left Tokushima 13 days ago. I`ve noticed that after 13 days of continuous walking i`m starting to look enviously at motorised transport. Buses, cars, trains, trams, bicycles, wheelchairs. They all look so damn fast. I`m not sure how much longer i`ll last. Perhaps i need more free accommodation, peaches and coffee.

Kaifu

Hello again.

It`s been about a week since i last wrote anything and i`ve been a little bit busy.

I was in Tokushima and ready for a walk. The walk around Shikoku was started by a man called Kobe Dashi who founded Japanese Buddhism and built 88 temples around the island. People started doing the walk around as a pilgrimage to Kobo Daishi hundreds of years ago and it`s now mainly done by car and bus tour. Very few people do it on foot.

The first temple and start of the hike was a train ride east from Tokushima to a town called Bandou. On the train i met an old man who used to live in London and bought me a Japanese Buddhist walking stick. I bought a guide book and started hiking down the road. That first day I hiked 18km through small side streets and rural villages and saw the first 6 of 88 temples. I met a Japanese guy at one temple who was doing the hike on foot for the third time in the past year. He gave me some advice and some Buddhist prayer beads and wished me good luck.

That night i stayed at a guesthouse at a temple that had a sauna, a huge TV, cigarette machines, free breakfast and dinner and when I sat down to eat that night the head Buddhist man gently asked me, "Mr David, would you like a beer?" I liked Japanese Buddhism instantly.

Day two was a quiet 23km through 5 more temples, hot sun and cool wind which has resulted in the best t-shirt suntan ever. I strolled through a valley filled with empty streets between paddy fields and crops and met a crazy man 3km before the last temple of the day who laughed at everything i said, spoke to himself in Japanese, told me i had "weak legs and heavy backpack" and kept pointing to things and telling me what they were. "Road." "Car." "House." He wouldn`t leave me alone until i lied to him and told him i was Catholic.

That night i stayed in an empty hotel in a town called Kamojima and the next day walked 15km almost all of which was uphill through a quiet forest to the top of the valley i`d spent the previous few days in. It was tough on the legs but when i got to the top there was a beautiful temple and the Japanese guy i`d met on the first day who gave me the Buddist prayer beads was taking a rest. His name was Muto, a Buddhist carpenter from Kyoto and we`ve been hiking together since. Muto isn`t your average Japanese Buddhist hiking pilgrim. He smokes cigarettes like kids eat chocolates, drinks at least one beer every night and sings Beatles songs. That night he helped me find a guesthouse in a nearby town and he camped in his tent in a car park about an hour away.

Day four was 23km and consisted of Muto teaching me Japanese and me helping him with his limited English. We saw four temples and he told me that on the hiking trail around Shikoku there are free guesthouses in the towns a villages where people doing the walk can stay. And so that`s how i came to be sat in a small two roomed flat above a taxi rank drinking beer and watching baseball on TV whilst eating beans, spinach and massive oranges that a taxi driver had given us whilst two small girls that were the owners nieces gave me a rendition of Heads Shoulders Knees and Toes and then began an impromptu English lesson by naming different animals and then pointing at my head. Japan is fun.

The next day was 27km long and it rained the whole time which made the air cooler and my sunburn happy. We saw three temples and Muto taught me how to say a thank you prayer to Kobo Daishi at each temple which seems like a fair exchange for free food, free accommodation and being able to do the hike in first place. We walked through the rain, past paddy fields and fruit farms, in bamboo forests and amongst rolling jagged tree filled hills. That night we stayed in another free hostel and ate in a convenience store before grabbing some beer from a vending a machine and testing my newly learnt Japanese again.

Day six was another 27km full of drizzle and cloud. We climbed three hills through mystical Japanese mist, 2 more of the 88 temples and later that day Muto found another friend who gave us a place to stay for free. The only catch was that the owner of the free hostel was also the owner of the village hardware store and so we had to work in exchange for the place to sleep and that`s how i came to find myself cleaning plastic plant pots with a chain smoking, beer loving, Beatles singing Buddhist carpenter outside a hardware in rural Japan. and the next morning he somehow managed to get a free breakfast through another friend who is the village hairdresser. in every town and village we pass through Muto seems to know somebody who can get us free food or accommodation. He always knows a friend. I`m starting to think Japanese Buddhism is a more transparent version of the Masonic Lodge.

The next day was an uneventful 26km walk along the main road that loops around Shikoku, Highway 55. We walked along side the road and through towns along the coast to yet another free hostel, this one next to a temple. Muto was very happy that they had hot showers and even happier that there was a beer vending machine around the corner.

Yesterday was full of sunshine and sweat and after seeing a monkey in the trees and Japanese eagles circling in the sky we arrived 22km away from where we started in the small town of Kaifu. I paid for a room in a hostel and a Muto tried to find a place to pitch his tent. This morning he told me that he was walking around last night looking for a park or a patch when a man walking a dog invited him to have some noodles and a beer in his bar, which, of course, he accepted and got steaming drunk and slept there. He met me this morning and said we`d been invited to the bar for morning tea. And that`s why i`m in the bar now typing this in the owners living room on a keyboard that has its CAPS LOCK stuck so i`ve just typed his whole thing holding down SHIFT while Muto drinks tea and talks with the bar owner behind me and two dogs yap away at my feet. I`m still not entirely sure how i`ve managed to find myself free loading my way around japan with a cigarette loving beer drinking Buddhist but that seems to be what i`ve done. And this is just the first week. Korea already seems a long time ago.