In hindsight I should've gone to bed a lot earlier than midnight on Sunday, as a 5am departure time had me up and getting ready at 4.30am! I packed my things (temple stamp book, new camera and a change of clothes just in case) and drove down to the local supermarket where I waited in the carpark for them to arrive. At 5.10am they rocked up and after transferring my things to their silver Toyota Prius we set off towards Matsuyama (the major city in Ehime prefecture).
Now, I was a little confused as I had thought we were going to Kochi and here we were taking the expressway to Ehime... but it turns out Wariishi-sensei had earmarked a couple of temples for us to visit in this area and instead of driving over a couple of mountain ranges, it was best for us to detour slightly on the highways. And so at about 7.30am we hopped out of the car and checked out the first of four temples we would visit that day. Unfortunately that early in the morning, it didn't occur to me to take pictures of the temple, though I did collect the temple calligraphy for my book.
The next temple was up in the mountains nearby and driving the windy roads up the mountainside made me feel a little travel sick truth be told. I ended up having a small snooze in the car to prevent nausea from taking over and woke up feeling dodgy as all hell at Temple #45. With a 20-minute walk from the carpark to the temple site, I was feeling too ill to lift my camera let alone lug it up a mountainside, so I left it behind and started the trek empty-handed instead. Halfway up the path I realised my error - this temple was beautiful and I would definitely recommend it to anyone wanting to embark on a version of the Shikoku 88 pilgrimage for themselves. Luckily I remembered I was packing an i-phone in my pocket and these pictures are courtesy of that little beast :)
After this second temple stop, we piled back into the super-quiet Prius and set off for The Tengu Highlands on the border of Ehime and Kochi. Again the route was through the mountains and so again I dozed off to avoid the increasing nausea. In what seemed like no time, we arrived at the Tengu Plains and all I could see were rolling green hills dotted with scatterings of limestone rocks for miles. Wariishi-sensei told me that this area was a prime breeding ground for Wagyu beef and so we drove a little further in search of the famous black cows. With the windows down to take advantage of the cool breeze on the summit, we could smell the cows before we could see them! We parked next to a small paddock and got out to take some pictures of the cows grazing. One even came over to the fence for a drink out of the trough and to get up close and personal.
Further along we decided to go for a bit of a wander through the fields, taking photos of some flowers and stopping to take in the breathtaking mountain view. Wariishi-sensei told me some stories about the yokai (hobgoblins) said to inhabit the area and we spent some time watching a National Geographic team painstakingly photograph a certain specimen of flower. We then drove to a nearby hotel in search of bathrooms before the long trip to Susuki Town in Kochi, and it was here that I was able to snap a picture of a little yokai (pronounced: yolk-eye) statue in the lobby. We were just about to drive away when Mr Wariishi noticed a big line on the road that marks the border between the Ehime and Kochi prefectures. So we all got out of the car and posed for photographs, standing astride the line as you do.
The drive to Susuki Town was a long and hot one and again I think I fell asleep in the back of the car. I woke up needing to pee and having just arrived at Wariishi-sensei's friend's house. I didn't catch her name, but she was very beautiful and had two rather cute small children (a boy and a girl) in tow. Apparently she has lived in Japan for only one year and so while a lot of the conversation took place in kanji, I was able to understand that of which was spoken. She kindly gave us some cold, sweet porridge-like Taiwanese soup that people usually drink on hot days to cool down and offered us some candy - which after I put in my mouth was told was "fish candy"... The soup was pretty nice but the candy unfortunately tasted just as bad as it sounds - almost like a sweet fishy stock cube - and I couldn't get it down fast enough. We only stayed for about an hour before setting off back into the heat to find a place to have lunch.
Wariishi-sensei had heard about a rare type of ramen (salty egg-noodle dish famous in Japan) called "nabe-yaki ramen" and so at about 2.15pm we stopped at a Visitor's Centre to find out where we could eat some. The place they recommended shut at 3pm, so we hurried to find it down the little back streets and ordered 3 bowls of the house specialty. Truthfully I didn't enjoy it that much. The soup was of a thinner, sweeter variety than your typical Tokushima ramen (by far my favourite kind) and included in the hotpot were pieces of ground chicken fat, slices of fake fish roll, sliced spring onions and a raw egg (which was eventually cooked by the heat of the dish).
After our ramen we left the restaurant and went back to the Visitor's Centre so that Mr Wariishi could buy some "katsuo-no-tataki" or flame-grilled tuna steaks. He bought a plate for us to try on the spot too, and so I got to eat some of Kochi's famous fish. It was rather tasty, but truthfully I'm not sure why everyone raves about it. It wasn't my first time trying it either - I have been served this exact dish a few times already at fancy meals I've had here in Japan this past year. I took the opportunity to buy some omiyage for my kocho-sensei (the Principal at Awa JHS) and some of the teachers - sugared, deep-fried sweet potato chips in the Kochi-style. Finishing up at the registers, we decided to visit two more temples and our trek there took us down to Tosa on the southern coast of Shikoku, where we stopped the car once or twice to marvel at the beauty of Japan's Pacific Coastline.
The last two temples went by in a blur of trying to reach the Stamp Office before the 5pm closing time - which we did! - while simultaneously trying to avoid the heat and get in a few good photographs. I was quite happy with having the opportunity to visit 4 of the harder to reach temples in one day and even more so when I received a small present at the final temple (for being foreign). I also managed to conduct an entire conversation with a fellow pilgrim ALL in Japanese, of which I was quite proud!
We set off for home at about 6pm, taking the expressway back to Wakimachi (a town about 20 minutes from where I live) and I was dropped off at my car, thoroughly exhausted, at about 7.30pm! All in all, it was a LONG day but we managed to achieve quite a bit and I definitely had some experiences that I wouldn't have had the opportunity to, had I not travelled with a Japanese friend - so to Wariishi-sensei I am very grateful for the invite. Now to just sort through my photos and figure out what gift I should give to Mr and Mrs Wariishi as a way of saying thanks.
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