Takamatsu

We wanted to have a low key day, and to be honest we were feeling a little seedy, perhaps cumulative tiredness, or more likely one too many glasses of Zoave last night. Took a while to get into gear, and we spent a fruitless half hour looking for a Tourist Information Centre shown on our map but which does not seem to exist on the ground. We've worked out the ticket machines for the local trains, and we caught one down to Tamamo Park and the ruins of Takamatsu castle. The main castle has gone, but the moats, bridge, stone work, and two of the turrets on the perimeter walls remain. It has a nice enough garden but nowhere near as nice as Ritsurin.

But it was a nice place to spend a sunny Tuesday morning. Anne was feeling like a rest, so we headed back to the hotel, then I set off to see how far I could get on the 88 temple pilgrimage. The short answer is, not very far at all.

I caught a train to Kotoden-Yashima station, as I had read that there was a bus from there up the mountain. There was a sign in English confirming this, but the bus time table was in Japanese and I couldn't work out what time the next bus might be. It was a fairly cheerless location and the sun was blazing down, so I thought I'd walk. I headed off up a road heading towards the mountain, which led to an abandoned JR Funicular railway, with the carriages slowly decaying away in the overgrown foliage. There was some inviting looking stairs, so I headed up those, but they led to a shrine with no further access up the mountain that I could see. Thwarted I resorted to the map, and chose a conservative approach of walking back towards the station before, hoping I might hit some signage for a pathway up the mountain. From my Camino experience, the pilgrimage path there is liberally marked with yellow arrows and shell symbols. Surely the 88 Temple Pilgrimage path would be clearly marked?

Well, not this bit. I walked up the road I thought from the map would lead to the walking trail but totally missed this sticker which was the only signifier that this was indeed the right way - only noticed it on the way down. Eventually I came to a collection of walking sticks left to help people up the mountain, which was a pretty clear sign I was on the right track. The pathway climbs up steeply but thoughtfully there are seats every few hundred metres. I started to encounter people going down, including some pilgrims in the trademark white cotton jackets. I think my age was a good ten years younger than the average age of people I encountered going up and down. The older Japanese people are extraordinarily fit.

It was a pretty walk up Mt Yashima and eventually I arrived at #84, Yoshimi temple. It is home to an ancient carved statue, the Senju Kannon or thousand armed goddess of mercy, but it was nowhere visible. In fact the place had a sort of shut up feeling. It is also home to a shrine to the Yashima Toshaburo Badger, "considered to be a monogamist and is respected as a god of peaceful families, marriages and the restaurant business." I paid my respects to this one.

Around the corner, coaches were pulling in filled with bus borne pilgrims. They all collected their sticks as they got off the bus for the 200 metre slog from the bus park to the temple.

The top of the mountain has splendid views across the inland sea and back inland, and is an important historical site. I managed to see rather more of the mountain than I intended, as there are few English signs, and I managed to misunderstand the maps.

Eventually I found the path I had come in on, and retraced my steps back to the station, and back to the hotel. We hit the Spanish Italian grill again for dinner, and went easier on the Zoave this time. It started raining while we were eating - no doubt because I put my rain coat in my bag which I sen on to Tokyo. But tomorrow we will be on trains most of the time, so should be ok. We are looking forward to getting back to Tokyo.