Art By Tali Landsman

Shikoku 88 Temples Foot Pilgrimage; Shōryūji, Temple 36 - The Temple of the Green Dragon   Today we met a master and I was so excited, but allow me to start from the beginning. In the past few days, we finished visiting all the temples in the area of Kochi City, and it was time for us to check out of our hotel and to start heading south. We did not start early in the morning. The Nikko hotel has a fabulous breakfast, and we knew that it would be the last time for quite a while, for us to get such a great variety of gourmet healthy choices. So we lingered over breakfast, and then packed and left. From temple 35, we picked up the pilgrimage route where we had left off, and walked on quiet rural streets. It was a pleasant walk and soon we left Tosa City, and the road meandered in a narrow valley, wedged between tall mountains on both sides. We were heading towards the Southern coast. We walked though a long tunnel which I have begun to enjoy, because the tunnels are shaded and breezy ...

Shikoku 88 Temples Foot Pilgrimage; Tanemaji - Temple 34, and Kiyotakiji – Temple 35 We had big plans for Sunday, our rest day in Kochi city. We planned to go see the early morning Farmers Market, to visit the Kochi Castle, which is the main attraction of the city, to visit the Kochi Art Museum, and to visit the Manga museum featuring many talented young artists. When we woke up on Sunday morning, it was pouring rain.  We had to admit that the sightseeing day that we had planned would not really give our feet the much needed rest that we craved. So instead of crisscrossing the city in the rain, we decided to hang around our upscale hotel and to use the hot spring Onsen, to rest, to plan our route for the upcoming week of walking, and to ask the front desk at the hotel to help us with booking our next few days of accommodation. With the help of a most caring man at the front desk, we booked an interesting array of accommodations along our walking route. There will be very simple gue...

Shikoku 88 Temples Foot Pilgrimage; Chikurinji - Temple 31, Zenjibuji – Temple 32,  Sekkeiji - Temple 33 This morning, we needed to change hotels before starting to walk. Because we only make last minute reservations, the hotel that we have been staying at (the Sansuein) was fully booked for the next three nights. So... we made a reservation to stay at the Nikko Asahi Royal for the last three nights we are in Kochi City. Because we got to the Nikko Asahi early in the morning, we left our backpacks at the hotel and put on our rain gear. It was a very rainy and misty morning which felt even more so, by the fact that Jules and I argued. Don't ask me what we argued about. Some nonsense. Perhaps we occasionally feel overtaxed by this pilgrimage, and fatigued from the physical and mental exertion. We never really remember those silly arguments, and we often laugh about them if we can even remember what triggered them in the first place. In this case, it was about leaving our bags with th...