nishikawa-sanandwadasans

nishikawa-san & wada sans                  More divine intervention. Just as I was sat trying to weigh up the possibilities of ignoring a blatant “No camping” sign at the very picturesque place I was planning to stay, an introductory call came from the next bench down. After a couple of minutes normal chit-chat Nishikawa-san turned up and before I knew it we had invites for dinner & lodging. So a very pleasant evening has been spent deep in religious and philosophical conversation, with a very heart-warming detour into appreciation of my poem once I got my Basho book out in response to our host Wada-sans Thoreau (>taking issue with translation of ‘narrow’). Wada-san is a well-travelled Asian man who "makes things” living in Osaka but home to visit his mother (first thinking she was senile but eventually what could be more opposite) whose floor I’m about to sleep on.Its’ been great to talk and have company but the beer has made me sleepy and I don’t want to keep Nishikawa-san up much longer cos we have a long day to reach his place tomorrow. But its nice to be full of extremely tasty home-made food and have the prospect of sleeping in the same room as an air-conditioner. And I haven’t even mentioned the bath or state of my blisters. Hence, more soon…

Is this a final farewell to Route 55? I’ll be sad but the multiple of 11 thing is still sorted cos I’m sat at the crossroads with Route 22, wahey! Shoulders hurting way too much this morning so I’m glad of Nishikawa-sans description of this as a gentler day. I’m sure he’ll be along to overtake me in a minute with the whole tortoise & hare thing going on between us. It was a real pleasure to be able to find out a bit more about him by way of last nights 3-way conversation and Wada-san was a great conversationalist all by himself what with his mountain climbing pursuits and  all round educated and interestedness (and the way they talked about Japan after the war in a way I hadn’t heard before).. And as for his mother, who has been round 16 times – she tied a beautiful bow on the front of my henro robes as we were leaving. Nothing much of note on the road so far – it’s a very grey day. I see Nishikawa-san coming in the distance so I stupidly competitively feel the need to continue on…