Above: Giant Ojizō-sama, Temple #10, Chichibu

A few days later, I set off for the second day of pilgrimage. This time I left much earlier and walked from Seibu Chichibu station to Temple #10 to continue at the next temple from where I had left off last time.

My route this day was: Temple #10 Temple #11Temple #12 Temple #13 Temple #14 Temple #15 Temple #16 Temple #17 Temple #18 Temple #19 Temple #20 Temple #21 Temple #22 Temple #23

The recommended route for the second day would cut off at Temple #18 and return by train to Seibu Chichibu station, but as it was still early and I was still fit, I decided the push on and take an advance on the next day.

Above: Ojizō-sama statues, Temple #19, Chichibu

At Temple #11 I had an amusing chat with the caretaker about from which country Häagen–Dazs ice cream originated and at Temple #16 I received a bit of chicken for lunch 🙂
From Temple #18 until Temple #23 I kept bumping into the same person so it became a bit of a habit to have a short chat at every temple. I loved these little interactions with strangers, this happens so rarely – too rarely when visiting Japan.
At Temple #15 I ran into a group of five pilgrims and we had a long chat. They asked me where I was from and long after we had said goodbye, I could still hear them talking about Holland. I ran into the same group at the end of the day at Seibu Chichibu station as they had just returned from Temple #19 and it felt like meeting friends.
Temple #12 was meticulously kept and at Temple #13 everybody was served a cup of tea (supposedly good for eyesight) and a short manga featuring the temple and explaining its background and why it does have a kindergarten associated with it. Temple #20 was very beautifully situated.
Temple #17 and the old bridge between Temples #19 and #20 had featured in the well-known Anohana anime and when I arrived at Temple #17 a couple of girls in cosplay were posing with their DSLR on a tripod. They had come on bicycle, so they were clearly going from location to location and, this I remember vividly, they were quite impressed with the sound of my Pentax 645NII medium format film camera 🙂

From Temple #20 one really starts to enter the countryside with the very rural Temple #22 as highlight for this day. After visiting Temple #23 it got dark and, coming down the hill again, it was a straight shoot into town back to Seibu Chichibu station.

Read all about the third day of the pilgrimage here.

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