Day 8: Kobo Daishi's helping hand

Sleeping right in front of a temple has the advantage of allowing a quick visit in the morning, and so we do as soon as we get out of the minshuku, compensating for a somewhat slow starting of the day. The temple, so early in the morning, is really deserted. Being a Sunday such is also the city, with the only exception of groups of students biking to the baseball field to practice under the shining sun.

We wrongly reach the coast, and from there we try to reach temple 34. Initially, having lost our way, we get help from a man who is getting ready to fish from the tsunami protecting walls and we manage to the temple.

There we have the first hint that today won't be a usual day like the others: a couple of German henroes throw us a rant as "you are not supposed to skip any temple". We simply let it go and try to enjoy the sunny day.

First we cycle inland, heading to the hills where we have temple 35 to visit. From there we descend and then climb some other hills to reach again the coast, where we have two options: the first is to take a bridge, reach the extreme point of Yokonami Peninsula, visit temple 36 and then Sasuki city, while the other is to cycle the northern side of the gulf skipping the temple.

Shortly before reaching the bridge we realize we should withdraw some cash, as we have barely enough for the day. The problem is that the closest post offices or Seven Eleven are either 30 km back or 50 km ahead, the rest of the places being barren for foreign cards.

When we cross the bridge to cycle the peninsula, we start to feel that our minds are depleted: while our legs are reacting as usual, we completely lack the will to push the pedals, and right there we have strong head wind and the usual hilly coast line we have already experienced.

We stop at a small rest area and try to decide what to do. According to our plan, after Susaki we have a 10 km climb to reach our lodging, but we simply don't feel capable or reaching that far. We therefore decide to go back and take the inland route, which according to the map should be at least more flat and also protected from the wind.

Riding along the countless small bays, gorgeously displaying their emerald waters and luscious vegetation is surely a fantastic view, but it doesn't really help our minds to get energies. Noon passes when we are still at about 3/4 of the gulf, and we plan to stop for lunch at the first rest hut after a small climb.
We manage to complete the climb, pass the tunnel and descend until the rest hut, where we finally stop for lunch.

There are two other pilgrims resting there, but our faces must be so scary that we don't really inspire any small chat, and they soon depart leaving us there with our onigiri. Contrary to our usual breaks, this time we don't start back shortly after, though we really should, as it is getting late. We feel like someone is whispering in our hears to wait some more.

We sit on the bike and then dismount after few seconds, waiting for what we don't know. We then notice a small figure approaching from uphill, the same direction where we came.  When the figure gets close enough we recognize she is a western woman, who greets us and sits to rest. Her name is Truus, she is Dutch and she is walking alone but lodging together with Suzanne, from Germany, who reaches the hut while she is telling us the story.

We feel relieved to hear some laughter, and we share what has been our day with them. They just hint to take some rest, maybe stopping earlier and relaxing without pushing too much. They mention that they will stay that night in Susaki, in a small business hotel, and invite us to spend the evening together with them.

Still unsure what to do we get finally back on our bikes and greet them. Few kilometers ahead, once we reach Susaki, we don't need too much time to decide to stop: we call the business hotel where the two ladies are staying and reserve a room, then call the other minshuku and cancel our reservation.

It's just 3 p.m. when we take our shower, but as soon as we touch the beds we cannot help but fall asleep for a couple of hours.
When we get downstairs at the reception we find them, who saw our bikes parked outside. We arrange to have dinner together, and we get out searching for a suitable place while a stunning sunset is displaying before our eyes.

We enjoy a nice dinner with a lot of talking and laughing, sharing with them our experience about Japan and listening their stories about their walk so far, and when we get back to the hotel we cannot avoid thinking that the voice whispering us to wait could not be anybody else that Kobo Daishi. We thank Truus and Suzanne for their help and we get to sleep.

Our minds are charged again.

Where we slept:
Susaki city, business hotel Satsuki, 0889 43 0300