6 March 2025 - Day 4 - Temples 13 - 17 - The sun does exist in the Empire of the Sun - 31,3 km

Today was going to be a long but easy walk and I headed off with Nicolas the Canadian. The easy walk turned into a repetition of yesterday’s extremely hard hike over the first 2 km so I let Nicolas go, who specialises in steep unpassable tiny mountain trails.

Luckily for me after about 1,5 km I caught up with him again and at that point we had more or less reached the street and did the major part till Dainichiji together. It was 20 km till the first temple of the day, the other 4 were rather close by.

Jorakuji, Kokubunji and Kannonji I walked alone but met David and his daughters several times at temples.

After finishing at Kannonji, Nicolas, who had made a detour to a bekkaku temple in the mountains, caught up with me and we continued to his accommodation.

Today I had my first experience of spontaneous ossetai when a woman ran over to me and offered me a small selfmade pouch with some tissues and candy. She also pointed me the way to Idoji, the last temple for today.

Needless to say, it was another beautiful temple, and as it was already getting close to 17:00, I decided to take the train back to Tokushima Station where my Hostel is located, instead of walking the last part. Even so I finished with a total of 31,3 km. My personal maximum ever!

I am now completely knackered and will fall into my bunk bed in the ladies’ dormitory.

Thanks again for reading and your motivating messages. Don’t forget to add your name in your message so I know who to thank, or message me by private mail, whatsapp etc.