Moving on

 Inside the little Shinto shrine was this statue, which was only about a foot high. I believe it represents a god but I have no idea what one.

 I left the shrine and started walking toward home. Looking up I saw this large bell on a roof top.

Paying more attention to the building itself rather than the bell on the top right corner, I realized that it was an apartment building. Now, why would an apartment building have a bell on the roof? Simply decoration? An inscrutable Oriental thing? Who knows? I was tempted to go into the building and knock on doors, asking the occupants what the bell was for, but then I realized that they probably would not know, either.