can tick off the last two temples from the list of 108 that comprise the pilgrimage. It is only about ten kilometers so I should finish in plenty of time to catch a train back home. I actually had quite a bit of trouble finding the first temple, number 84, Hozoin in Meinohama. It's located in an area of narrow streets with small houses packed close together, and just looks like a regular house, though once entering the narrow front yard it is packed full of statues.

It has only just gotten light and it appears to be all locked up so I head off. The road I am on is the former Karatsu Kaido, the old road that ran from Hakata to Karatsu, and a historical marker andsign show what is used to be like, but all that's left is the narrowness of the road as everything else looks to have been constructed in the twentieth century, and the latter half of the the twentieth century at that.

Behind a wall I see a vermillion painted shrine, a Sumiyoshi Shrine, but curiously the gate is locked. I can't remember ever having found shrine grounds locked before. Certainly in towns and cities the shrine buildings will be locked up, unlike rural shrines which are often left open. Not too much further and I come to a hillside covered in blossoming cherry trees and a couple of torii leading up the steps. That is where I find the next and final temple, number 85, Kannonji. In front of