A Journey to Japan: Konpira-san

While we were in Takamatsu, we decided to visit a nearby town, Kotohira. This town is the setting for a rather famous shrine, Kotohira-gū, also known as Konpira-dai-gongen, or more affectionately, Konpira-san.

This shrine is the patron of ship transport and sailors. And in order to get there, one needs to climb a very long set of stairs. So we were in for an exercise. We took the train from Takamatsu, and after almost an hour, we reached the town, and from there, we just started climbing up.

In the lower levels, there were plenty of shops selling refreshments and souvenirs. Japan, after all, is a very souvenir-heavy country, and every place has their own "famous thing". Of course, Kotohira and Kagawa Prefecture also have their own, which we tried later. But for the moment, we only rented walking sticks made of bamboo, which aided our climb.

Eventually, the shops thinned out, and there were more and more shrine-like elements that we passed by. And at some point, we reached the top. And then we turned around.

By this time, it was lunch time, and we found a place that serves chicken in bone, or honetsukidori. This is a famous dish from the area, and we definitely wanted to try it. It was a great finale to a morning full of climbing.