A Saturday in the park

I spent this morning correcting exams and to relax a little I decided to walk to Izumi-chuo and stop at Starbucks. I took a long cut and went west for about 2 kilometers so that I could wander around the park before I turned north for coffee.

This first picture is a Shinto shrine. Today they had some sort of a ceremony so there was flute music and drums as I walked by. I stopped here for a while to listen and every once in a while I could see a flash of white as a priest passed the doorway.

The six small pictures are scenes in the park. It is quite big and very pleasant. Last year I used to walk through it when I went for my exercises, but now I usually walk at least 10 kilometers at a time rather than the 5 that was my max last year.

The final small picture shows a bench with a statue of a sax player. It is very popular and many people sit next to it to have their picture taken.

The larger picture at the end shows the shopping area in Izumi-chuo. Starbucks is just to the left of the doorway in the nearest building. It is a little hard to see but the sign on the roof of the left-hand building is for "7 & iHoldings". This used to be "7-11" but some group called iHoldings bought up a bunch of the stock and added their name. This group also seems to own some department stores and other businesses.