Still walking but in the housing area south of Nanakita River

 This parking lot is higher than the road and the access is quite steep. Winter ice and snow could make it difficult to reach you parking spot, but the pattern in the concrete will help cars gain some traction. Adding this pattern to concrete roads is very common. Some day I hope I see them making the pattern so that I can see what kind of tool they use.

 Trash day. Today there are picking up plastic and cans.

 This is the view from the road of a local sand and gravel company. They import truck loads of dirt and stone and export sized gravel and sand to local building sites.

 On of the things that I like about Japan is the low level of crime. This building supplies company leaves much of its stock outside. These are aluminum beams, square and hollow, of various sizes. They are simply left standing without even being secured in any way. I can not think of many countries where you could do this without having them disappear.

 This is a definitely unJapanese house. I suspect that it was probably imported as a prefabricated package and then constructed by Japanese carpenters.

The sign on the window has the name of the shop, Rakuda (notice the vertical part of the K) on the left and the word shaken, the top character meaning 'car' and the bottom 'inspection'. Shaken refers to the inspection and required replacement of parts on cars. Not having a car, I no longer know the details, but periodically, yearly for very old cars, the car must be inspected at a government authorized garage and a number of parts replaced or at least tested. Shaken is usually quite expensive and costs in the vicinity of a thousand US dollars.