We finally got to our hotel (Taichi San had rung ahead and booked us in – bless his saturated socks). We had intended to leave our packs there and walk an hour to Temple 20 but the man said it was a Mountain temple and the track would be muddy and slippery after all the rain, so we took off all our wet gear and came inside.
We went through the process of checking in and paying then Taichi San showed me the bathroom, the shoe drying machine and the washing machine and dryer. He then lead me up to our rooms. He said I could take my bath first and to let him know when I had finished (“could you please teach me when you’re finished”).
I quickly dumped my bags, got my pyjamas, yukata and toiletries and went down.
It was the first fully operational bath house situ I had been in. (The one the other night only had a small bath and it wasn’t operating). I quickly had a shower then dipped my toe into the large swimming pool sized bath. It was far too hot for me, which was a shame because outside the floor to ceiling window was a picturesque wall of native ferns and other plants.
I put my Yukata on and knocked on Taichi Sans door – he said “Oh - you fast!” and looked relieved and happy.
I gathered my laundry and put it in the machine then made myself dinner of a tomato and green pepper sandwhich.
Later on I knocked on Taichi Sans door and asked what time he wanted to start in the morning and said I would see him then. I didn’t want him to think he had to babysit me for the rest of the night and I wanted to relax by myself anyway.
When I went down to put my laundry in the dryer, I saw there were about 20 pairs of shoes. Obviously someone had rented out a large space on the second floor and there were a bunch of men and a few woman all eating, drinking, smoking, laughing and cheering raucously – having a great time.
When I went down again to get my stuff out of the dryer, there was a young Henro, who might have been a monk, waiting for his wash to finish. I said Hello then went back to my room.
My new pack was fantastic and sooo light but by the end of the day my shoulders were getting sore and as I lay down, I could feel a lot of pain in the right one. I regreted not getting a pack with a waist strap.
Oh well – it was only $7 NZD so I could always buy a better one.
I decided to have an early night. I felt refreshed to have eyebrows plucked, nails filed and legs shaved – Yay!
Just then a fight broke out in the hallway – I suspected it was going to be a long night ahead…
TEXTS...
PG to EL:
It sounds like hostility and anger have a Universal Language
EL to PG:
More like boys who can't handle their booze - probably about a geel
RT to EL:
Hw's th journey? wht's th landscape like? I keep imagining u in sm MMORPG (Massive Multiplayer Online Role Playing Game) like Anarchy-Online or Everquest...lots of virtual mist & hidden missions in seemingly innocuous pieces of Oriental ceramic...
EL to RT:
Just took pic 4 u of misty mounts out my window! Did 17kms in rain, thunder & lightening-saw big turts & frogs-stpd @ old ladies shed 4 soup-havin a blast!
MMORPG Landscape
SB to EL:
Turtle Soup huh?
Turtle Soup huh?
No comments:
Post a Comment