Tosa to Usacho, 14 km
As much as we love the Henro Helper app, one of its gaps is that it ends recommended stages in odd places where there is no accommodation or temple. Yesterday’s endpoint was in the middle of nowhere outside of Tosa, so instead of a 25 km stage, it’s actually 31 when you get to somewhere with a bed. However, as we’d already done the extra km, today’s stage was the same amount of km shorter. Yay! Actually it was too short, as our accommodation had a check in time of 4 pm (very common in the types of places we’re staying in).
First up was a visit to Temple 35, Kiyotaki-Ji, about 10 minutes walk from our lodgings.The temple was very busy at 0800 – probably due to holiday weekend ‘traffic’. Actually most pilgrims drive, so the inverted commas are perhaps superfluous. There’s not much foot traffic, and certainly no other family groups, so we are something like minor celebrities!
From the hill we meandered into town for a coffee, then slowly trekked our way across the farmland before entering a quite beautiful forest trail up and over the hill. We are indeed fortunate, as if Typhoon Dujuan had made landfall any further south we’d have been wet and miserable – maybe even hunkered down in a Minshuku watching the rain.
Our host of yesterday had a beehive, plus a trap for these very nasty-looking Giant Japanese Hornets:
Tonight’s dinner. Japanese tapas anyone?
The best news for the day was finessing the never-ending Japanese long weekend. The little ferry from Usacho to the head of the inlet doesn’t operate on public holidays. We’d mistakenly thought that the long weekend finished on Tuesday, so had booked a second night for Sam and Max in the Minshuku. However there is apparently a float day, so Wednesday is also a public holiday. We read on the app (an update to it since we’ve been here) that the only other minshuku in town, John Mang, offers a boat service for its guests. So Sam and I paid them a visit, met a wonderfully helpful woman who spoke excellent English, and negotiated a ride with them even though we’re not guests. Yay! The alternative was for Sam and Max to backtrack by bus almost to Kochi City, then take the train down to meet me in Shimanto Town. Not an exciting option, but for their feet, preferable to the two long days of walking when the ferry boat is not running. More to come!
2saunter 