Naka River

 This is the Naka River, Nakagawa in Japanese. The mountains in the background are to the south of town and block much of the bad weather from reaching us. The ocean is only about 10 kilometers directly behind me.

 They have been working on the river since we moved here and I have shown many pictures of the work sites. This picture was taken from the bridge and shows the large concrete slabs that have been changed in place along the bank to prevent flood waters from carrying off those banks.

This is the much smaller river (stream? brook?) that is between Naka River and my apartment. It merges with Naka River a couple of kilometers north. If you look carefully at the surface of the water, you can see little rings of waves. These are being made by small fish. I really don't understand it but I have never been able to find any fish in Naka River, but sections of this stream have lots of small fish. When I was a child, I called fish like this minnows.