We did it!

Yesterday was fairly ugly. It started raining pretty hard right as I was breaking camp. Thankfully it didn't rain earlier as it turns out my chosen spot only half stayed dry.
I confirmed my theory of the military base on the mountain when my morning hike was to accompanied by the sounds of assault rifles set to burst fire. It was kind of freaky really. It was pouring down rain, between the clouds which had descended upon the mountain and the trees none of the dawn light made it through so it was quite dark, then the gunshots...
Anyway, the rest of the day was pretty uneventful. I ended up climbing one more mountain (there was one more planned that I ended up doing this morning instead). I don't know if I've said this before but it can be said again. Climbing up a mountain is easy, its the way down where you risk life and limb with every step you take. Don't know how many times I managed to slip on the way down from 84.
I ran into an interesting group at the super near where I stayed. A pair of gentlemen around 60ish, with another older man and two women popping in to the conversation at various times. For some reason it had a jay and silent bob feel.
One of them said something I've been told a few times recently. Apparently I'm starting to look Japanese. But not just any Japanese, I'm told I look like a samurai from the past. Maybe I'll have to take it a step further and show up to one day of gencon in kimono/hakama with a katana and wakizashi attached. I already own it all, might as well put it to use.
Anyway, yesterday night I camped out at the ropeway station at the base of my next mountain. I was told it was pretty nice, I was deceived. The benches were too short for me, and in bad locations anyway. The weather was supposed to get ugly, so I ended up unrolling my tarp under the shelter for bikes/motorcycles. Turned out to be a wise choice as it started pouring down rain at about 2:30.
I set out in the rain but made really good time to the temple, getting there about a half hour before it officially opened. The guy was nice though and stamped my book anyway.
Stopped raining again in the early afternoon, and the rest of the day was sunny. I finished up temples 86 and 87 pretty quick, then headed off to 88. On the way there they have a "Henro Salon" where they give you a pin and a little certificate saying you walked it (they assume you make it to 88 ok). 88 had me going over another mountain. Wasn't so bad except at the summit where it became much more of a hands and feet mountain climb. The view from the summit is supposed to be spectacular, but it was cloudy/hazy so I couldn't see anything.
Ended up arriving at the temple about the same time as another guy, probably about my age. His family was waiting for him and they all seemed quite happy. In his joy he bought 30 packs of udon to give to friends/family as souvenirs, and then gave me 3000 yen settai since we finished at the same time.
I was looking forward to staying at the tsuyado here, but apparently they got rid of it. There's still a nice place to camp out but I was hoping for a futon.
Tomorrow is off to the same place I stayed the first night, with a onsen nearby and futons for sleeping. Will be quite nice. Hopefully I can find a coin laundry too.