A walk around the neighborhood 03

The trees along the street have had their winter trim. In the fall the city pays gardeners to trim back the branches on all the trees that line the city streets. The reason for doing this is that the root system stays about the same size as the branch system, so keeping them trimmed prevents large roots that could destroy the road or sidewalk. The overall reason for the trees is, of course, to provide shade in the summer and prevent the city from becoming a concrete jungle.

In a very small neighborhood park I found this large sculpture. The three hands at the top (one is hidden) are in the three shapes for janken, what English speakers call hammer, scissors, stone. In Japan janken is used to decided things, rather than the American flipping of coins, something few Japanese have ever heard of.
At the park I turned off the main road and just a hundred or so meters down the street found this nice little shrine.
Next to the main building (on the right in the above picture) is an even smaller and older shrine.