Osettai, The People Connector
We woke to a morning feast! Our Pink Pilgrim, Kamakura-san, and her friend must have gotten up before sunrise. For hours delightful smells from the kitchen made their way upstairs to our room. Salad, toast, yogurt, fried eggs and coffee were all served for breakfast. Again the ladies joined us only after the last dish was placed on the table. We spent the morning talking about many things, them in Japanese and us in English. Wonder if we were even talking about the same subjects? It didn’t matter, we laughed and smiled throughout the morning meal. Suddenly Kamakura-san teared up. She told us how happy she was with our company. The feeling was mutual. Our hostesses were not about to send us on the road empty handed. A lunch that could easily have fed six was our bounty for the road.
We all drove back to Temple 33 so we could pick up the pilgrim trail where we left off last night. In the car we continued our fun exchange talking about Asadoras (Japanese soap operas). They nicknamed us Massan & Ellie, after a particular popular show. We said farewell to our new friends and set out for Temple 34 (Tanema-ji) where we caught up with some familiar pilgrim faces and ate ice cream.
Our walk into the city of Tosa was overcast but comfortable. The road took us through small villages. Once in town, we left our bags at the hotel and proceeded to Temple 35 (Kiyotaki-ji). It started to rain and that made me grumpy. But it turned out to be just a drizzle so my grouchiness faded.
Grumpiness must have been in the atmosphere. The stamp monk at Temple 35 gave me a stern reprimand when I took a photo of a cute Jizo in the office. A feeling of confusion and sadness washed over me with his harsh tone, but outside a group of smiling bus pilgrim cancelled out the monks actions. We all have bad days.
Raindrops on rice fields accompanied us back to the hotel. A young lady riding a scooter passed us. When our eyes met so did our smiles. She quickly turned around and stopped. From her bags of groceries she pulled out bread as osettai and handed it to us. She was definitely on her way someplace with these warm rolls. Tonight someone, somewhere is wondering what happened to their food.
Whether it be snacks, money or lodging, Osettai is the most wonderful and genuine of Temple 88 customs. It is a people connector.
April 24, 2016 - Temples 34 & 35
