I had lunch at the road station Karari, I took a set meal of udon made from glutinous wheat. It is said to be very nutritious, and it was delicious too. At the road station, I also bought some dried sweet potatoes again.

The henro route goes along the Oda river, whose water is really clear and transparent.

After a 30 minutes walk from the center of Uchiko town, I arrived at Ose village. Ose is the birthplace of Kenzaburo Oe, the Nobel Prize winner for literature. As similar to Uchiko town, there’s an old street with small but unified old-fashioned houses at Ose village.

As I was standing in front of Ose-no-yakata in a daze, I was asked, “Will you stay here ?”. Aha, I didn’t realize that it is actually guest house 🙂 When I greeted the man who was grilling fishes at Ose-no-yakata, he told me “It’s a good day for pilgrims today.” What ? because it was snowing? Anyway, the fishes on the charcoal grill looked so good 🙂

Sennin yado Taishi-do is located at a short distance from Ose village, which is a free place to stay. I’ve seen some free lodging place during this pilgrimage, but this one is very well maintained and I can actually stay here. I didn’t know there was such a Zenkon-yado available.

The henro route separates into two parts at the place where Sakaeya Ryokan is located at Tsukiawase intersection. The lodge I’ll stay today is along the Nouso pass side, but I was a little surprised when I read the description of the road, because the road via Hiwata pass is 7 Km shorter than the one via Nouso pass toward No.44 Daihou-ji Temple. I couldn’t check on Google map because it was on a mountain road… I was a little shocked to learn that it was quite different 😉

When I arrived at the road station Seseragi, I noticed some people who looked like skiers. There was a signboard on the way, saying that the biggest ski resort in Shikoku was just ahead.

I tried to find something to eat, but there was nothing special. I bought a cup of tea and sweet potato cake. I knew, I bought a lot of sweet potato stuff recently ;).