In my days in Shikoku I have managed to visit just two of the 88 temples -- Byodoji in Aratano and Yakuoji down the road at Hiwasa (日和佐）. Byodoji is temple number 21 and I rang the bell there to bring in the Year of the Dog on 1/1/2006. Yakuoji (薬王寺） is temple number 23 and its name means ゛drug king temple゛ in English. People go there to get good luck or rather the bad luck removed from two of the unluckiest ages of the Japanese Buddhist life cycles. You read that right there are unlucky ages in Japan -- the 33rd year of life for women is said to be cursed, while men better beware (be aware) in their 42nd year. These are mean-assed years but fortunately much of the misery and misfortune can be undone if you visit Yakuoji Temple.

As one Japanese website points out: "日和佐へは平等寺から三つの峠を超える。薬王寺は日和佐の町を一望する山の中腹にあり仁王門から 三十三段の女厄坂本堂までの四十二段の男厄坂がある女三十三歳、男四〇二歳が厄年で厄年の人は 厄銭を落としながら登る。四国一の厄除けの寺だけに年間百万の人が参拝する。 弘仁六年、弘法大師四十二歳のとき、自他の厄除を誓願してご本尊の薬師如来を刻み、大師の奏聞に より、平城・嵯峨・淳和の各帝は厄除の勅使を下して官寺とした。文治四年（一一八八）の災火でご本尊 は玉厨子山へいつたん移られたが、再建後は新しい尊像、が造顕されたため、後向きに本堂へ入られ「 後向薬師」とよばれている。現在の本堂は明治三十六年の建立。本堂右のゆぎ塔へは六十一段の還暦 の坂を登る塔内には五智如来が奉安され、階上は寺宝の展示室、また、塔からは美しい日和佐の町並や 大浜海岸が望まれる。阿波霊場もここで打ち終えとなる。"

Apparently the way to undo the bad luck of the malignant 33rd/42nd years is to scatter coins as you climb the long long staircase up to the main temple complex. There are special staircases for male and female pilgrims -- and you guessed it, there is one stair for each year of your life. That is, the women have to climb 33 years and the men have to climb 42 stairs, and they have to drop coins on each step to thoroughly scrub their karma squeaky clean. You will see plenty of coins on the stairs at this temple -- see the photo at the bottom of the stream on the left for visual confirmation of this! I kept wondering what would be the karmic payback for the hapless backpacker or penniless pilgrim who scraped up some of these aforementioned coins, and pocketed them. Too terrible to contemplate I'm afraid!

Hiwasa itself is a quaint little coastal town and you can get a swell view of the place from the top of Yakuoji. Fishing is a big industry and there are some cool islands jutting up near the shore. On misty days the view has almost a south China/Thai limestone ambience, except that there is too much concrete gray in the palette. Hawks do the rounds above.

From one official tourist site, I gathered this information: "Hiwasa is located on the Muroto-Anan coastline in the southern part of Tokushima prefecture. This is a national park area and faces the beautiful Black Current sea. Hiwasa is a small fishing town with a population of about 7000 people. Whilst small in size and population, Hiwasa nevertheless boasts well established tourist facilities. These cater for the 1 million people who visit annually. Some of these visitors hail from Cairns in Australia, which is Hiwasa's sister city. Hiwasa is blessed with clean air and blue skies. The town is set in folds between the mountains, and only a few minutes walk from any part of town will bring you into cool forests or onto sandy beaches. Hiwasa is known as the "town of faith and turtles". The temple in Hiwasa, Yakuoji Temple, is the 23rd temple out of 88 Holy Places on the island of Shikoku and is an important place for pilgrims. Hiwasa is also popular for people wishing to see turtles. Each year about 150 turtles lay their eggs on Ohama Beach from May to August. Hiwasa is located by the sea, so fishing is a major industry. There is an abundant array of fresh seafood available throughout the year."