Nearing the end of my walk, but not there yet

 This is the way rural Japan used to look before the commercial interests started moving into the rice paddies. This is what might be called a homestead. There are a couple of buildings with landscaping and a surrounding wall. My guess is that the family owns, or owned, all of the surrounding paddies. There are limits on the size of the paddies that one person (one family?) can own. These were enacted in order to keep the rich from buying up the land and turning the majority of the farmers into essentially serfs. The maximum size is large enough to support a large family and to have are small but reasonable income from selling the remainder. In addition to growing rice, many farmers add smaller areas of other vegetables and fruits that are sold to the local markets.

This is something that may be unique to Japan. It is a stone store. These rocks are all for sale and are used when developing a Japanese style garden. Most homes with gardens have at least a few large stones somewhere in the layout.