Day 14 - A Rainy Transfer Day, and Reuniting With Our Friends Joseph and Wendy, The Kyushu 108 Temple Pilgrimage, Japan

 

Day 14 - A Rainy Transfer Day, and Reuniting With Our Friends Joseph and Wendy, The Kyushu 108 Temple Pilgrimage, Japan

This morning we had a Japanese breakfast in our empty grand hotel .

Exactly at the time we requested, there was a knock on the door, and a suit-clad woman rolled in a white tablecloth draped table with two beautiful wooden boxes, containing our Japanese breakfast.

Each item was arranged in its own compartment inside the box, and artistically cut and placed neatly.

After breakfast, we packed our backpacks, dressed in raincoats and checked out of the hotel.

It was the first heavy rain day of our pilgrimage thus far, and it did not stop raining all day until we went to bed at night.

We were like two giddy kids, excited to meet our friends Wendy and Joseph, who had just finished a few days of hiking in Oze National Park, north of Nikko, Japan.

We decided to meet in Karatsu, west of Fukuoka, and walk south together from there towards Ureshino Onsen, covering the temples along the way that are on our pilgrimage route.  My heart was so warmed to see them again!   

We soaked in the hot springs and because the rain didn’t lighten up, we had an overpriced buffet dinner in our hotel.

Tomorrow we will all start walking together.

Hopefully we will find nice paths to walk on and hopefully the rain will stop…

With love and friendship,

Tali

Stats: 10,140 steps 

Today’s walk: 7 km 

Kilometers walked to date: 240

Temples visited: 

None - Transit day.