I originally planned to walk down to Kochi city and walk to the hotel, however, I decided to take a bus to the city since I was exhausted and I also wanted to buy some medicine and insole to ease the strain on my foot. Instead, tomorrow morning, I’ll take a bus to go back and start from the pilgrimage from the same place.

There’s actually not so much to say about this business hotel. Fortunately, the hotel was located right next to famous Harimaya bridge, so there were many shops around it. First, I bought some medicine at the pharmacy, then checked in at the hotel. After doing my laundry, I took a taxi to the Sports Authority in Kochi Aeon supermarket, where I had checked on the internet that they might sell good insoles.

When I told the taxi driver that I’ve been doing Shikoku Henro Pilgrimage on foot, he said he wanted to do so if he could, but he didn’t have enough time nor the money. Then he started to recite the Heart Sutra very smoothly and said, “If you visited Chikurin-ji today, the next stop is Zenjibu-ji, Seikei-ji, Tanema-ji and Kiyotaki-ji, right?”. The driver noticed I was so surprised, then said he was the son of a Shingon Buddhist priest.

After arriving at Aeon supermarket, he offered me some coins as osettai to pay for my coffee, saying that he wanted to accompany with me. At Aeon supermarket, I could buy good insoles, and had ramen and gyoza for dinner. When I got back to the hotel, it was around 9 o’clock and I was bit tired.