Where Am I?

I was asking myself and everyone else that question today. I was going for a record of how many times I could get lost in one day!

Since I had paid my visit to Dainichiji yesterday I planned to bypass the climb up the hill and just intersect the trail as it continued on towards the 29th temple. Of course I missed it. But I met a man heading towards me in the opposite direction at the same time that I saw a road sign pointing to that temple in the opposite direction. So I turned around and ended up walking with the man I had met. We had some brief conversations but my conversational skills in Japanese are extremely poor. But together we found the all too often nearly invisibly tiny red arrows marking the way. He treated me to some delicious sweet bean cakes from a little shop. We parted about a kilometer from temple 29 because he was heading to his lodging for that night.

I walked alone through tiny trails in the middle of flooded rice fields, always wondering if I was still really on the trail. It did lead to Kokubunji where once again I admired the beautiful gardens. It had the most amazing flowers everywhere. It was so cute how they had protected them with little clear plastic umbrellas. I saw the gardeners hard at work tending to their beloved flower gardens.

I went on to number 30, Zenrakuji which was up over a big hill. I ran into a couple of fellows that I had seen on other days along my route. We all seem to be playing a little game of tag. Sometimes I'm ahead and sometimes one of them is ahead. But we do keep seeing each other every few days. I met a guy on a bicycle and wondered how he ever got it up some of those horrendous hills.

Now I had a decision to make. Should I go off the trail and head a couple of kilometers over to my hotel for the night, or just continue on to number 31, then backtrack to my hotel. It was such a nice day that I decided to keep on to Chikurinji, temple 31. I had one of the familiar guys in my sights up ahead. But he was really moving fast. It was a comfort to see him because I knew I was still on the right path. But he was so speedy that he finally was out of my view. It was about that time that I missed one obscure red arrow and found myself much farther down the highway than I thought I should be. Turning around I walked back to the last known point and saw the nearly invisible marker. The trail really got crazy from that point on. Through alleys, rice fields, what seemed to be people's back yards, over bridges, bike trails, and along streetcar tracks. School let out and kids were running by in every direction adding to the chaos. Then came the narrow trail to the top of yet another mountain. It started with tiny steps. I stopped counting at 100. Then there were other trails branching off in every direction because I was now in the maze of a huge gorgeous botanical garden. There were signs everywhere but rarely one for the temple. I started asking various people. They would point up there, so up a few hundred more steps I went. The next person would say down there, and down a different set of steps I went. This went on until I was totally confused and about to collapse from the heat. Somehow through the grace of God or Buddha or Kobo Daishi, I stumbled into the temple gate. I can tell how tired I was by how crooked my pictures are from there. I lit my candles and incense and said a little prayer of thanksgiving for whatever or whoever finally guided me to the right place. I ran into the bicycle pilgrim and together we found the temple office and got our books stamped and signed.

I knew at this point I woud never find my way back down through that quagmire of trails to my hotel, so a kind woman in a shop called me a taxi. I have been studying the map and have figured out a route from my hotel that will take me around the bottom of Chikurinji's mountain so I can join the trail to temple 32 without climbing to the top again tomorrow morning.