Day 58 - Tenchoji Temple In Miyakonojo, The Kyushu 108 Temple Pilgrimage, Japan
Day 58 - Tenchoji Temple In Miyakonojo, The Kyushu 108 Temple Pilgrimage, Japan
Today was the second part of our walk from Kirishima city to Miyakonojo, through the Shiragatake mountain range.
We started the day with an early breakfast.
After eating such a mediocre dinner last evening in the hotel, we had no positive expectations for breakfast.
But breakfast turned out to be superb.
Their homemade tofu was creamy and delicious.
The local sweet potato was nicely roasted.
They had a great selection of pickled vegetables and cooked root vegetables.
They served lacquered boxes filled with local ingredients and all the usual delicious Japanese breakfast foods.
They also served the Black Vinegar local brand that makes flavored apple cider vinegar, which I had planned to buy.
I mix it with soda or with green vinegar and make my own Kombucha on the road.
The hotel had all the vinegar flavors and I was able to taste them all and decide which one to buy.
We walked to the train station and took the train to the same station we reached yesterday, and then walked down to Miyakonojo town.
The walk through the mountains was along the national road, which had sidewalks.
It was also mostly downhill, and because we had left our backpacks in the hotel, it was much easier to walk.
All around us, there were tea plantations.
The Camellia plants are cut by machines, whenever the new leaves grow.
It was very different than the tea leaf pickers in Darjeeling, who walk through the fields with sacks on their backs, skillfully plucking by hand the new growth leaves and placing them in their sacks.
In some cases, white tea buds are picked on full moon nights, and perhaps this adds to their amazing taste.
Perhaps this is also why the Japanese green tea we have been drinking everywhere tastes so mediocre.
The matcha tea grown in Uji is world famous and is processed without fermentation.
But these machine cut and harvested green tea leaves taste grassy and unrefined.
The Camellia plants growing in the plantations that we passed looked dusty from the trucks and butchered by the trimming machines.
The trucks that passed us carried manure and cows, and the smell lingered for many moments after they had passed by us.
No doubt that this is also not a perfect environment for growing good tea, that flourishes in clean mountain air.
Before we reached the temple, we stopped to have an Okonomiyaki lunch.
Okonomiyaki is a dish resembling a savory pancake, made from chopped cabbage, an egg, and yam flour.
You can choose other ingredients like shrimp or corn, and grill it at your table to your liking.
It is eaten topped with a teriyaki sauce and mayonnaise, and sprinkled with green seaweed flakes and bonito shavings.
It was tasty, simple and well made.
Then we walked to the temple.
Temple #41, Tencho-ji, was founded in 1538 by Tadanosho Shimazu, the 8th lord of the Miyakonojo Shimazu family.
The mountain behind the temple used to have an ancient forest with 1,000 year old pine trees and a constant supply of running water.
Since its founding, this temple has flourished as the best in Miyakonojo, but it was destroyed by the anti-Buddhist movement in the first year of the Meiji era, and lost many statues along with the temple buildings.
The stone Buddhas that barely escaped the difficulties of the anti-Buddhist movement are now designated as tangible cultural properties in Miyakonojo City.
The current principal image of Tencho-ji Temple is the four-armed Fudo Myoo.
According to the records at the time of its founding, Shokannon was enshrined in the main hall and Fudo Myoo was enshrined in Goma-do.
The Four armed Fudo Myoo is a very rare figure.
However, because it is a hidden Buddha, it is only opened and shown once per year.
The monk at the temple was friendly, complimentary and curious about us.
He was amazed that foreigners can chant the Heart Sutra and asked how and why we had learned it.
He asked Jules about his age, and said that he was only one year older than Jules.
He said he wished he could be stronger and able to walk so far.
He gave us green tea and salty rice crackers. We asked if we could take the crackers with us to eat later.
After our temple visit, we walked to the train station and returned to our hotel in Kirishima city.
Today, we decided to have dinner before we returned to the hotel, which had served us a very mediocre dinner yesterday evening.
We found a family restaurant on our walk that served a variety of set meals, among them some vegetarian options with red rice mixed with barley.
It was a simple and tasty meal, and many people came in to enjoy the food.
After dinner we sat in the Starbucks and had tea, before returning to our hotel to soak in the hot springs.
There was a bus full of high school students in the hotel, but luckily none of them were in the hot springs, and I was able to relax in the soothing waters.
I examined how I felt before going to bed.
I felt wasted and tired.
I wasn’t sure that I was enjoying myself any more.
But my better mind knew that the way I was feeling today was to be expected on a long pilgrimage.
Not every day can be great.
Sometimes it can be hard and difficult and tomorrow it may be much more fun.
With love and kindness,
Tali
Stats: 34,211 steps
Today’s walk: 24 km
Kilometers walked to date: 1002
Temples visited:
Temple #41 Tenchoji (Shorinzan, Tenchoji)
