Roving Japan

Day 40 Photoset

This morning we went to Kochi castle, one of the few castles in Japan that is not a concrete replica. The castle is also unique in that it was made during the Tokugawa shogunate, and therefore its main purpose was to house the local lord, and not defend against attack. This castle was actually lived in, which gave it a really nice vibe. Since all the wood is original, the castle creeks and pops as people walk through. The smell of the wood is in the air, and the entire experience is much more authentic than most of the other castles we’ve been in.

As we looked around the bottom level of the tower, we walked in on a TV show recording session. There were a couple of pretty girls sitting in a room of the castle while a guide told them something interesting. Then the producer lady would tell them what to say and any questions they should ask. The girls would do as they were told, acting like they had come up with the questions. It was pretty funny to see them bossed around by the producer.
Producer:“Go in here.”
Actress: “But could I go…”
Producer: “NO, just GO IN HERE and say [blah blah blah]”
Actress: “Ok”

The producer didn’t take any lip and was pretty bossy. Highly entertaining to those of us watching, but I sure wouldn’t want to be one of the actors.

I emailed my friend Stefan who used to live in Kochi about the local sights, and he mentioned Godaisan temple, so that was our next stop. Godaisan is part of the Ohenro trail, so we weren’t surprised to see some pilgrims when we got there. What we WERE surpised to see was the tour bus that was driving them to each temple. All the pilgrims had walking sticks, but they only used them from the bus to the temple and back. The driver would collect everyones walking stick and stow it away until the next stop. After meeting Nakata san and the bicycle Ohenro, these people seemed pretty weak. But I suppose you do what you gotta do. Maybe one of them recently strained his Planar Fascia and can’t walk very well for a while.

Our next destination for the day was Ishizuchi-san. The map to the mountain shows a couple of windy highways, but nothing too bad. However, once we hit route 426 the “highway” quickly became a single lane two-way traffic paved road carved into a cliff side. While occasionally nerve wracking, this road was really awesome. The views of the valley were fantastic, and Risa and I thoroughly enjoyed the drive.

I have to make one more comment about the wilderness in Japan. For some reason, the Japanese feel the need to give all their rivers tall cement walls. I don’t understand why they need to turn a pristine mountain river into a concrete channel. They sometimes even pave the river bed! I read in the Lonely Planet guide book that the government employs a lot of the people who live in the mountains. They used to be farmers, but now they work on government subsidized river paving. (Interesting reading about Japanese concrete addiction here, here, and here)

This evening we finally got to the Omogoke wilderness area and it didn’t disappoint. The river up here is free of concrete walls, and the water is crystal clear. When we first arrived we came across a man fishing for bait fish. Tomorrow he is going to use the small fish to help him catch eels.

We are here in the off-season, so the campground is closed (free). We are the only people camping, and its absolutely beautiful. We are just a few meters from an awesome looking stream that I plan to jump in tomorrow.

Photoset, Day 29

We went north along the coast about 12 miles to a small rest area/campground sandwiched between the highway and the ocean. The walk was really pretty, as we spent most of the day along the ocean side. The only mishap was when Risa stepped on a dead fish that had somehow managed to get on the sidewalk. We don’t know how the fish got on the sidewalk considering the sidewalk was about 20ft above sea level, but there it was. And Risa stepped on it. About an hour later we noticed that my pants had fish guts all over around my ankle. Gross!

We met another Ohenro on the road this afternoon. We didn’t catch his name, but his story was very touching. He is doing the pilgrimage on a bicycle this summer. The bicycle belonged to his wife who past away last year. He wanted to do the pilgrimage on her bike so that she could be with him during his journey. We met him at a small rest area where someone had made little frog statues for travels to use as protection. You could either take a single frog, or a 2-pack for couples. He took the couple set.

He was very helpful, as it was obvious he had done the pilgrimage before. He told us that we needed to buy food in the next town because there wouldn’t be another store before the camp. Just to make sure we found the right store, he rode on ahead to the town and waited for us so he could show us the way.

We made camp at a rest area just off the highway. The owner of the little store at the rest area told us we should set up our tent on the wooden deck near the bathrooms by his store. The spot was perfect until about 9pm when the motorcycle gangs started showing up and revving their engines right next to our camp. Then we also had to deal with them going to the bathroom and walking past our tent. So we packed our bags and picked up the tent and moved farther away and closer to the beach. This spot seems much quieter.

Photoset, Day 27

Risa has been pretty sore recently. Today was a tough day for her knee and foot, so we only walked about 10 miles to the small island of Kashima. The island is just a 3minute ferry ride from the shore, with service every 20minutes. Risa almost missed our boat when the captain started to pull away while she was taking a picture. The ferry captain was in a big hurry to get back to the island because he was in the middle of watching a drama on TV. He didn’t have time to wait for some chick to take pictures! The island has a nice little campground with fresh water and bathrooms. It’s the off-season so the showers aren’t open, but at least we have a nice place to camp.

While setting up the tent, a man walked over and started making conversation. His name is Nakata-san and he is currently walking the 88 temple pilgrimage trail… for the 58th time. Fifty-Eight. He has made it his life goal to walk the trail 100 times. So far he has spent about 10 years, walking the trail 4 times/year. The trail is about 1400km long, so he has walked about 81,200km! He said to us, “I probably haven’t even walked around the earth once yet.” Of course, since I had the iPhone I had to find out. He was quite surprised to learn that he has in fact walked around the earth TWICE.

He was really nice, and he gave us some advice for our remaining travels in Shikoku. He doesn’t camp in big cities, instead he gets a business hotel or walks through to the countryside to camp. He also recommended that we stay on the pilgrim trail so we can take advantage of the rest stops. He showed us some campgrounds on the map that he recommends using, so our next target is a campground about 12miles away from here.

Tonight it seems like Risa is also coming down with a cold, so we might just stay on the island again tomorrow, then head out again on Saturday.