Tuesday, May 10, 2016

Day 29; Kanonji City to Zentsuji

Spending the night in the Zentsuji Station Hotel. When i made the reservation i wondered if it might be more expensive than i usually pay but it's not---because it's not what i expected.

It's certainly not a dump, but the typical business hotel doesn't have to worry about the competition. The best way to say it is that it only costs ¥4,000, and you get what you pay for.


Walked under cloudy skies for the majority of the day. 


Drizzles chased me into rain pants and the umbrella by late morning, but that only lasted a half hour or so. After putting both of those away, i didn't need either until the rain started permanently again around 2:00. After that the umbrella stayed up for the rest of the afternoon.

This is the main gate (niōmon) into the temple compound for both Temples 68 & 69; they both share the same compound. 


The niōmon houses two deities, one on each side, whose sole purpose is to protect the temples from bad influences. They come straight from Hindu mythology, with no attempt to convert them to Buddhism. This is one of the niōmon deities at another of today's temples, the one we call "agyō." He represents the alpha side of the equation, the beginning, the creation. The deity on the left represents the omega side.


And more trail markers---these found on the road to Temple 71.


I'm slightly in shock right now. I've gone from being slightly worried that time is very tight and i'll just barely finish this walk on time, to having too much time and knowing that i am going to finish a day or two earlier than planned. I'm still not sure how it happened.

But, it now looks like i'll finish on the 17th instead of the 19th. I could have done the climb to Temple 60 the other day.






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