Views from the parking lot

After looking around inside, I left the store and walked to the side of the parking lot that is farthest from the street. It was a bit disconcerting. This is the view looking north.

This, however, is the view looking south. The store and a Shinto shrine share a border. In a way, it is probably more appropriate than it seems at first thought. In Japan, at the start of new building projects there is always a religious ceremony, usually Shinto but sometimes, I think, Buddhist. The ceremony seems to have two purposes, to introduce the local god to the idea of the new structure and to protect the building from evil.