23 March 2025 - Day 21 - To Kongofukuji Part 2 - 21 km & 4 km recreational in Shimanto City

We had an early breakfast among 4 ladies and when we were ready to leave, our hostess gave each of us 2 onigiri (rice balls) as ossetai and we took some pictures before continuing to the Cape.

It was going to be another hot spring day, it feels like someone suddenly found the switch and turned it from winter to spring. Let’s not complain! On my way out of Kuroshio I could see the Cape with its Temple in the very far distance. How am I supposed to walk there within three days?

The first thing to do is: start walking already… And so I did. It was going to be a short walk of less than 20 km with no Temple and no mountains so leaving before 8 was going to put my arrival certainly before 13:00, with check-in starting at 15:00. No need to rush therefore. So taking a few wrong turns around the coast didn’t alarm me and I finally found the right path.

When I got back to the main road after a nice parallel street, I see two Henro behind me and they call out my name. It was Yohann and Cyril, who I’d shortly met at a Temple several days before. We walked on together and ran into Ken who was enjoying a little time at the beach watching the surfers enjoy the waves.

We also took a little time to enjoy the first real beach we had seen so far and then went on. Cyril left us after a while, he intended to visit an onsen before moving on, so Yohann and I pushed on to Shimanto City.

On the way we needed to take a coffee break, as Yohann had found his favourite coffee at a vending machine. It’s quite surprising that one vending machine can serve cold and hot drinks at the same time I think. The coffee was really nice by the way.

We got to Shimanto City before 13:00 and found out that we really had accommodation next to each other. We were both lucky and could drop off our big backpacks and kongozue and went for a stroll in the city. First a little Thai lunch (excellent) and then on to Montbell, the Japanese Outdoor specialist where I bought a hat against the sun (instead of gloves against the cold) and Yohann also bought a few things.

We then separated for now, I walked back to my Minshuku and Yohann did some more chores. It was still before 15:00 so I went to sit on one of the benches close by and met a “new” Henro, Yanis from France, and found out that we stay at the same place tonight.

The ladies at the Minshuku were again very friendly and helpful, showed us around and asked at what time we want dinner and breakfast. Dinner with Yanis was excellent and we talked a lot with the two Minshuku ladies, luckily Yanis is rather fluent in Japanese and we had a good time together with the good food.

Let’s see what tomorrow will be. For now it’s almost time for bed. Thank you again for reading.