Temple: Kannoji – another bangai, this is numbered 17 but is a long was after bangai temple 18 (Kaigangi) on the trail. It overlooks a large reservoir that Kukai oversaw the construction of, in record time. It’s a very small temple and feels like it doesn’t get much traffic.

Dedication: I met Jon in Singapore airport while we were both stuck there in transit and he was a great single serving friend to while away the time with. He was from Perth and funnily enough in Auckland I met someone else from Perth who was a friend of a friend of his. It’s a small world. Thanks for the company Jon.

I had a slow day yesterday, hanging around in Zentsuji and enjoying the atmosphere for a couple of hours. I stayed, with John, in a zenkanyado, a free house for pilgrims. It was a proper Japanese house with tatami throughout and even a solar powered bath. It was owned by Akiko Takemoto, an eighty year old woman who had translated ‘Kukai – The Universal’, a great looking book on Kobo Daishi.

She came and chatted to us and brought us some milk. She told us her grandfather had built the house and her father had died in the war, starving to death in Papua New Guinea. She said she was the third generation to live in the house and we were now the fourth – a generation of pilgrims.

The picture is of the study upstairs. I got a lovely night of sleep and was ready for the long walk to this remote temple this morning. I think after a certain number of days of sleeping outside you really need a good night of undisturbed sleep to catch up.