1 April 2025 - Day 30 - Temples 41, 42 and 43 - 30,75 km with altitude gain of over 1000 m

Breakfast was excellent and filling as usual, and the hostess sent me off with her best wishes. So at around 7:15 I walked to the Lawson’s convenience store next to the train station to meet up with Jay and we immediately got going for a long walk with three Temple visits.

Temple Ryukoji was still rather easy to get to, so was Temple Butsumokuji. Both Temples were exquisite, each one in its own way. Before leaving Temple 42, we had a short lunch break and then we were ready for the harder mountain pass part.

I told Jay I don’t like walking the trails as some of them are really steep, narrow and dangerous, so we were mostly looking for the easier to walk but longer normal roads. But in this case we still had to do some mountain trails. When we reached a part where a landslide had taken the trail away and the provisional trail was secured by a simple ladder, I almost freaked out. Luckily Jay managed to help me get over my fear and after the small detour I had to admit that the ladder part looked freakier than it was. Still, I’m happy I wasn’t alone for this part.

The rest of the road and trails were ok, but I was still pretty happy when we reached Temple 43 and the town of Seiyo, where I had booked my Ryokan. At the Temple, the monk who calligraphed the books and scrolls seemed to suffer from some kind of nervous disease, he was very concentrated to do the calligraphy perfectly.

What I thought would be a little stroll down the street and to my Ryokan turned out as yet another trail going up the mountain, before we finally went down again. So after 9 hours and 10 minutes, almost 31 km and more than 1000 m of elevation gain, I finally entered my lodging for tonight, tired but happy.

The Ryokan is a big one, the heating in my room had already been turned on and the shower with a good hot bath felt soothing. The dinner served for me alone in a small room with tatami floor was delicious!

I am now looking forward to a shorter stage tomorrow, no Temple again, the next one is hiding in the mountains some 70 km away. Thank you for reading, thanks for your messages, they really help and mean a lot to me.