Ukitsu beach that can be seen from route 56 is quite beautiful, but due to this weather, it looks dreary.

I stopped by the road station, BIOS Ogata. It was interesting to see what they offered, but it was too early for lunch hence I didn’t buy anything.

I followed the route 56 to Shimanto City, but the official Henro route actually parted before road station BIOS Ogata. According to the map of the Henro route preservation association, the Henro route in Nakamura area is complicately divided and difficult to follow. And I noticed that I’ve took a long way around. Anyway, because of that I could have a really nice Unadon (eel rice bowl) at Sunriver Shimanto, so it was OK 🙂

According to this board, Ashizuri Henro route is an old road that crosses the Izuda Pass, and the distance to the 38th sacred temple is marked with stones at intervals of 100 meters. It seems that “Shinnen-an” had the role of free lodge to spread the practice of Buddhism.

Still nearly 4 hours from here to go… a long way… At the Izuda road junction, it’s still raining and I wanted easier route, so I decided not to take the old pilgrimage route, but instead went through the Izuda tunnel, which was a long one.

The rain finally stopped after I went through the tunnel. The mist, or rather the haze, cleared away and it was quite beautiful. The countryside scenery around here was really wonderful, just like the scenery of a Satoyama. It’s not always easy to see this kind of scenery, so I should appreciate it 🙂