88 Temple Shikoku Pilgrimage - Day 8

Day 8 - Saturday, 2016-04-09

Matsuyama / Takamatsu

We left the hotel by bus at 8 AM and drove to the foothills to start our hike, stopping on the way at a convenience store to buy lunch. I have become very predictable, once again buying a mix green salad, a rice cake (a ball of rice filled with a cooked fish, today’s is salmon) and a banana or an apple.

We started walking at 9:30, climbing a very steep hill, going up 800 meters in 2.2 Km. It took us ninety minutes to reach the first temple, temple 60. It was a challenging and strenuous , but beautiful wooded trail, with a cascading mountain creek.









We finally reached temple 60 (Yokomine-ji) where we met a group of school children on an excursion to visit the temple:







From there we continued on the other side of the mountain, mostly downhill on an easier slope. We went down about 1,200m in 10 Km to reach temple 61 (Kouon-ji). Temple 61, originally from the 6th century, is completely different from all the others. It was rebuilt in concrete 40 years ago after having being rebuilt many times previously  after fires. I didn’t like it very much, hence no pictures.
Father and son visiting the temple 61: