We are only on our fifth day of pilgrimage and we have already experienced so many acts of kindness from our hosts and from strangers that we cross paths with.

On the previous days we had already received bottled water, oranges 🍊 and snacks from random people on our way. This morning, before we started our walk, our host gave us cookies that she baked herself. She also helped us with planning and booking for the next two nights, since a lot of accommodations are already fully booked and it’s becoming more and more difficult to find rooms.

After visiting temple 17 (井戸寺) and on our way to temple 18 (恩山寺) a young guy stopped his car close to us and offered ¥1000 💴 so we could buy some refreshment drinks. At first we refused but the guy kindly insisted, saying that he had walked the Shikoku Henro himself 5 years ago and that he was more than happy to offer us this osettai (gifts given to pilgrims of the Shikoku pilgrimage) 🙇‍♂️.

A bit before that, we crossed paths with a group of 7 or 8 old Japanese people that for some reason were a bit too excited to see us. After trying to understand why, we heard that apparently we were somehow on the national TV 📺 😎! We couldn’t understand much of the details but this didn’t stop our excitement to be almost famous now 😆. Hopefully we’ll hear more about this soon!

Bruno 🍙