And now back to our regularly scheduled program

This will be long so take a seat.
As I recall we last left off on Wednesday, the 27th I guess it would be.
Well, not much to say about Thursday. It started raining again, but somehow it only really started raining right after I would take a break under a shelter, so I guess I was lucky.
I climbed up and most of the way back down one smaller mountain, stopping about 4k from temple 65. There I had a bus stop as my shelter for the night. Not the best of places as it was noisy and a little far from a bathroom and water.
Friday was a bit more interesting. I had about a 1000m mountain (the largest in my route) in the morning. It was a pretty steep climb and I was somewhere between dripping and pouring sweat. I would have hated to try that one in the afternoon.
The way down was a bit more leisurely, but its like someone messed up the measurements. Its a nice even descent until the last little bit, where it becomes nightmareishly steep.At the end of the descent there's a nice place that most people stop at. However I'm not most people so I went for 3 more temples, ending right after 69. The weather had been sunny (and unbareably hot) most of the day, but right as I was finishing up the last temple it started pouring. My plan was to sleep on the observation deck of the nearby park, though when I saw it I began to have my doubts, especially with the rain.
I had time to kill before the bentos at the super went half price for the evening so I decided to walk (in the rain) to the nearby michi no eki. It was closed. However on my way back a car stopped and the guy asked where I was staying. I say the observation deck. He suggests thats a bad idea (I already had that feeling) and mentions there's also an open air music/performance hall with roof thats really good for camping out, so I head there. It was indeed quite nice. Spacious, dry, and not located at the top of a large hill. After a couple minutes he shows up as well with bento in hand for me. We talked for a while, apparently he's done the trip by car and enjoys hanging out with the walking henros.
Yesterday (Saturday) there wasn't much distance to be covered, but it turned out to be a busy day. First off at temple 70 I ran into one of the other walkers I met my first night. The one that had done a lot of travelling. We talked for a while. apparently he had gone to about 36, then went back home to make some money, and was now starting from the other end and going backwards.
On my way to the next temple I managed to fing the 2 things I needed badly, coin laundry and an onsen. After both clothes and body were clean I continued on to temple 71. It turns out that one is well known for its 石段, or stone stairs. There were lots of stairs.
On my way up I ran into some friends of the guy from the night before. He had said he would stop and say hi if he met me on the road, but apparently he meant it in a more proactive way and had actually driven up and down the road looking for me. Probably while I was doing laundry. Then at the next temple the person at the stamp office looks at me really closely, then asks if I met a guy who gave me some osettai the night before. Apparently he had come searching for me at the temple too. Same thing happens at the next too temples.
As a completely unrelated interlude, I ran into a group of people driving to the temples at 71, again at 73, and again at 74. It gives me some amount of satisfaction that I kept pace with a car (and they were near dumbfounded). Nice people though. I gather that they're locals and just did a day trip to the nearby ones.
In the end I barely made it to temple 75 before the office closed. That limited my lodging to the parking lot of the temple or the park. At the parking lot they've got a gift shop with a nice overhanging roof to provide shelter, so not too bad. However they locked up the bathroom and while I think I can stay there there is a little bit of an off limits vibe.
The park also has a nice shelter, and the bench is better suited for sleeping. I also remember the guy from yesterday saying it was good. There were a number of stray cats and dogs though.
I had just eaten my dinner and was about to get everything ready to sleep when he found me. Apparently he had been searching most of the day and was somewhat annoyed/upset that I hadn't followed the schedule he had in his mind, which didn't take into account my laundry and bath. Also apparently he was expecting me to be at a different shelter up the hill a bit, which I ended up moving to. That turned out to be a good choice as some kids were setting of fireworks where I was before in the middle of the night.
Anyway, he finally leaves, saying to make sure to stay where I was planning on staying the next day (today) as he is going to drive all the way out there to bring me a bento.
And finally today. For the most part it was an uneventful day. It rained a few times.
In the afternoon I did run into another religious nutjob (This one had the cultist vibe going). As is the polite thing to do I greeted him as we passed (looked like your average salary man) and I was taken by surprise when his response was nonstandard. Then he started rambling on in broken English about how there were 2 religions, true religion and false religion, and that christianity was the true religion, but not morman or baptist, which were false religions. Anyway, I quickly managed to get away.
I made it to temple 81 today, and set up camp at the place I was told about by the temple. Its not bad, a rest and information place (closed for the night already) with a tremendous view of the surrounding area since I'm up on a mountain.
There appears to be a large military base on the mountain. I saw lots of big keep out signs and barbed wire fence, plus lots of military vehicles driving past.
Unfortunately either the crazy guy that is supposed to bring me food is either really late or not coming. While I was sensible enough to bring enough food to get by on its not the kind of stuff that's very filling.
And no, I did not write this massive post in one sitting.