Day 7 : 13 April 2009
We began with a shortcut through a dense bamboo forest where we watched a man harvesting bamboo shoots. The path then wove between small rice plots where trays of bright green rice seedlings lay ready for planting.
Japanese Lollipop Lady.
We found ourselves a bit lost having overshot our corner but were soon informed of our mistake by a nice couple in a van. When we arrived back at the corner, they were waiting there patiently to make sure we got it right, handed us a can of drink each and drove off.
At Temple 19 Tatsueji (Temple of the Arising Bay) we were given another drink each and some strawberries. The same lady came back a little while later with 2 more cans of drink and an offer of a bath at her house. We declined as we were as we were not used to such kindness. Further down the road she returned again with a lucky dragon charm.
Here we met Taku, another walking henro who spoke English well and had lived in Australia for a while. We explained our problem getting petrol and asked him to write in Japanese that it was for our stove. Whatever he wrote worked, as the next refill was free as osettai and we had no more problems.
We followed a river valley then turned steeply uphill to arrive at Temple 20 Kakurinji (Temple of the Crane Forest)
The downhill that followed was just as steep but shorter. The first of many blisters began to appear.
We had another pleasant night camping on a river bank.
(33.9054 N 134.5191 E)