Starting a walk

 I got to Mirikaroden and discovered that there was a heavy rain and flooding alert in effect so the classes were all cancelled. However, the weather forecast said that there would be a few hours without rain, so I decided to go for a walk. If it rained, it was warm enough that getting wet would not be a problem. So, I went out through the parking lot and headed for the mountains. In the picture, you can see the heavy cloud cover hiding the mountain tops. Right in the middle you can see a vertical white line of smoke. I am not sure what this is, but according to the map there is a crematorium at that location. In Japan almost everyone is cremated because there is no space for burying bodies. The ashes are kept at home or in a Buddhist temple.

 I turned off the main road that heads south toward the mountains and found this lovely little street. As with most narrow lanes in Japan, it has two-way traffic. If two cars meet, one has to back up until there is enough space for the other to pass. Amazingly there is almost no road rage in Japan. People just patiently wait. Sometime both cars will start backing up.

A little further down the lane, I came upon this traditional style gate. It is things like this that make walking in Japan such a pleasure.