{Shikoku Hachijūhachikasho Meguri}
NOJUKU LOCATIONS
For me, I loved REST HOUSES. They are sometimes marked on the map, but often appear out of nowhere. They always have a little 'azumaya' or partial wooden shelter, usually with benches just wide enough to place a sleeping mat.They always have a toilet and a sink, and often one can find an electrical outlet in the handicap toilet, if there is one. Electrical outlets can be found in the strangest of places. On poles. Behind vending machines. Under sinks. On ceilings. Under benches. After awhile you become adept at finding them.

Other henro swear by the ubiquitous, MICHI-NO-EKI. These are sort of large-scale rest areas built by a national program, and found throughout Japan. They have toilets, and usually even convenience stores, maybe a foot onsen, a rest house, vending machines and water. But they are not usually very scenic, and lack privacy, so I tended to avoid them.

SHRINES and TEMPLES present an option, but are often deep in trees, and thus mosquito-laden, soaked in forest moisture and mildew, having unclean toilets, bad water, are dark, dank, spooky, groaning, damp, ancient edifices, that for some just don't make a cozy place to sleep. I stayed in a couple of deserted mountain temples, and for me they were the 'samishii' (lonely) nights. Great hornets buzzing about, mildew, mosquitoes, rotting wooden floors, and the forest succeeding in reconquering the inside from out.

BUS STOPS and TRAIN STATIONS can make handy lodging, especially on rainy nights. But they are often overly lit up, and lacking privacy. I slept at Niida Station in a rain storm. Bright lights, mosquitoes, horrific, rotting toilet, bad water, spiders, and a sloping bench that I fought hard in my sleep not to slip off of onto the cigarette-stained floor below.

Temple TSUYADO present an excellent choice for lodging. Though do to my walking times, I never managed to arrive at one at the right time of day. Always too early. They are by all accounts a top option for lodging nojuku henro. Often they provide a clean tatami space, water, even an onsen at temple 56 Senryuji, if I remember correctly. Sometimes they offer food, drinks, etc. One drawback is that you may have to socialise a little when you would rather collapse in exhaustion.

ZENKONYADO are almost always welcome. Some particular notables are:

After that, the great zenkonyado dwindle, but remain as barns, storage shelters, fishing port break rooms, and so on.

I advise people to always accept good zenkonyado when offered or encountered, as well as Tsuyado, as a nice night in a clean tatami room can do wonders for dwindling morale.

The best nojuku location satisfies all of the above questions, but that rarely if ever occurs, so you must learn to accept the good with the bad as part of the Henro experience. It may sound sentimental or pretentious, but there is a certain satisfaction to be taken in making do with a minimal amount of comforts, while still keeping clean, eating well, and keeping a healthy mind and body. In this a person begins to really understand the nature of the pilgrimage. The walking. The repetition. The discipline of completing daily tasks. These inform the Buddhist element of the walk sometimes more so than the temples themselves. Only my opinion.
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