7:00 am — TSH, day 21

Hiking time has started around 6.20, walking is nice except for callosities on my feet that do hurt in the boots…

I’m walking up the stairs directly to the temples and will continue TSH there.

Panoramic view of green forested mountains
Mountain view through pine branches
Rocky outcrop with mountain panorama

9:00 pm — Wrapping the day

The day was hard yet mostly uneventful. The trail ran over the top of the ridge, going up and down all the time and showing spectacular sceneries.

At the end of the day I came down to a village just to discover that the thing marked at the gmap as a lodging is actually a school.

With no other visible options, I decided to ask a local before going back to the mountains for lodging. And after a short discussion a man I asked just went to the nearest house and asked for permission for me to set a tent at something like a parking lot near the house. Thus the accommodation problem was solved in the best possible way.

Then Toshi-san, the man who helped me, invited me for a dinner, so I spent an evening discussing different things over a cup of sake and a full table of delicious food cooked by Toshi-san’s wife.

Hazy ridges receding into the distance with a small village in the valley below, framed by foliage
Green dome tent pitched on gravel beside a wooden house at dusk