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Letter 43
Monday 23.09.13 110,30 km
I'm off at 8am. The big Buddha is waiting. It's not so easy to get there,
because there are no people yet.
The building that housed the Buddha.... ....and the Buddha himself
At last I'm at the entrance. I could even have got in at 7.30am. The building
where it sits is also of the biggest wooden structures in the world.. The Buddha
sits with this remote undefined expression, that you apparently get, when you're
beyond
this world.
If you could get through your wish would come true - perhaps
When I've ssen what there is to see, the square in front of the building is
filled with people. Japanese school classes in numbers. Exactly at 9am. I'm back
on Route 24 and I stay there for the rest of the day.
It was a hard day with sun the first 80 km. The temperature is just above 30
degr. In the end some comforting clouds arrive. The only thing to interrupt a
boring day in the main road are some hills up and down after I'm halfways.
Harvesting the rice
I'm really worn out when I leave the bike to go looking for T.I. Luckily it's
just around the corner. As ususal they recommend a couple of hotels around the
station. I ask about another one in the list. It's called City Inn and it's not
that far either.
I couldn't find the entrance, so I stopped a japanese on bicycle. He insists on
taking me all the way to the reception, which is inside a kind of center, and he
doesn't leave me until everything with the room is ok. Nice man. 6.100 Y
including breakfast japanese style, but then it's in the 10th floor view a view.
I think it was still 30 degr. when I returned from the supermarket 5.45pm. I
went crazy and bought 3 deserts and after having finished the main course and
one of them, I lay down and closed my eyes for a minute.
It was 10pm when I opened them again. Then I ate one more desert and read in
"Kafka on the Beach". I've almost finished. Most of it takes place in Shikoku
and it all comes to a climax in Takamatsu, where I'll be in a few days. I have
to be prepared.
There are two typhoons in the neighborhood I saw on the news, but one of them
looses the energy over China and the other seems to take a route AROUND Japan -
for the time being. The wheather have been stable lately but the temperature is
way over normal range.
There's no kimono here, it has buttons. It's a night shirt, now I've tried that
too.