9 March 2025 - Day 7 - Temples 22 - 23 - Finally the Ocean!! - 23 km Altitude gain 850 m

My calves are sour, every step and mainly every stair hurts. Ist that a surprise after several thousand stairs in the woods and at Temples? Still, no reason to cry or stop walking, Temple Byodoji (Temple 22) is literally just two steps away.

So after a tasty breakfast and a few calls for accommodation by my friendly hostess, off I go! I was surprised to hear children shouting from around the temple area, but Sam, who I met at the Temple, explained that these were monkey children calling out to their parents.

In the full sunlight, Byodoji was again a very pretty Temple and I enjoyed some time in the sunlight after doing the rituals. I then took off with Andre around 9:00, we have a similar walking speed, and we were in for a relaxed 5 hour walk to Hiwasa on the coast.

We were not in a hurry so we took a nice little rest in a “Henro Hut” in the patio of a school. The hut even served free hot coffee! As a thank you we hung our “osamefuda” (nameslips) with the name, home country and date next to those put up by other Henro walkers before us.

We decided to take the scenic route instead of walking along the highway and in return we got some beautiful scenery… and a few smaller mountain passes. We were both really excited when we got our first peek at the ocean in the distance.

We arrived in Hiwasa just after 15:00 and as we passed our respective Guesthouses on our way to Yakuoji, we left our big bags there before going to the Temple. Yakuoji is built on several levels with a giant Pagoda and towers over the cute fishery town of Hiwasa.

Andre joined me for dinner at the Guesthouse and we were in for a little surprise as we found out that Erica, the cook (maybe even the boss?) of the Guesthouse is half Japanese and half Belgian. It is a small world indeed.

Thank you for reading, you may obviously spread the word. I will try and answer some of your supportive comments now before stretching my calves some more.