Leaving the shrine

 Shinto shrines almost always have trees, often protected or very old. One of  these days I will have to do some research and find out the connection, probably it is related to the old folk religions.

 I left the shrine and was extremely surprised to find a narrow street line with brick walls. As I mentioned a few days ago, brick constructions are very weak and tend to fall down in earthquakes. I guess one reason that they have used bricks is that this part of Japan has very few earthquakes and the ones that occur are very mild, not at all like the constant barrage of shaking that we had in Sendai.

This is very typical of the roads in this area, very short and narrow with close together homes and trees squeezed into the open spaces.