Temple 22 and 23.

Last night had a nice soak in the onsen bath that is part of the minshuku. I removed the blister bandage and put a new coat of "new skin" on the blister. It is great stuff to have. This morning I am trying Debbie's duct tape suggestion to cover it and see how it works.
Breakfast was at 6 am, since the ohenro's wanted an early start.

Had breakfast with the five fellow ohenros I met last night at supper. I gave them my name slip. They told me not to eat my plum and they would show me how to make rice balls for lunch with leftover rice we each get in a container. You sprinkle a little salt on the rice and spread it out on the saran plastic wrap, the kitchen staff provided. I made two more with the sweet pickled "something" I had. The guys laughed, one sour, two sweet.

Headed out about 6:45 am. It was cool but weather seemed to indicate sunny when I watched the NHK TV station.

The walk to temple 22 was over a 250 meter hill. Quite a few steps to climb. I took my time. On the way down you walked thru these beautiful trees, like pines, but different. Kind of like the redwoods in California. Then hiked thru some beautiful bamboo forest which is the picture below. Hard to believe, here I was in the middle of a beautiful forest in Japan, not worrying about being lost and not a care in the world. Just the birds singing and the chameleon croaking, every once in awhile. When the wind picked up there was this banging noise, as the hollow bamboo hit against each other.

At temple 22 met up with my five amigos from breakfast. One likes to be called the joke man because I was told he likes to tell Japanese jokes. So when I saw him, I said hi joke man, you made it and this big smile came on his face. He said he was a slow walker and I said like me. The next two pictures are of Temple 22 - Byodoji.

Temple 23 - Yakuoji was beautiful with all the cherry blossoms. It was truly beautiful. Since I took the train from Aratano station to Hiwasa station (close to temple 23) I was able to spend a couple of hours enjoying the cherry blossoms at the temple since I was too early to check in the hotel. It was nice to just sit at the temple and meditate and reflect.

Excellent day. I brought a bento box for supper.