Not home yet

This is one of my favorite corners in the whole city. Across the street, you can see a Baskins-Robbins 33 ice cream shop. On the near corner is a Mister Donut. This is an experimental shop, possibly still the only one like this in Japan. In addition to the usual donuts and coffee, in the mornings they sell a breakfast consisting of coffee, toast, and a salad. At all times during the day, they sell around a dozen different kinds of spaghetti and Chinese style noodles. They also have chunks of bread with various toppings. My particular favorite is what they call a "hot dog". It is a long sausage in a bun with catsup and mustard and a bottomless cup of coffee. It costs 450 yen, around four dollars US. Since I have to pass this Mister Donut on my way to my Sunday go club, I usually have my lunch here. After eating a hot dog, I sit and study go problems while drinking coffee.

 This is the Kashiwaragawa, the Kashiwara River. It is a branch of the Naka River that is nearer to my home than the main river. Like most of the rivers in this area, it is well below the level of the surrounding land and the banks are covered so that they will not be damaged by flooding. In this picture there is an egret flying over the left bank of the water. While narrow, Kashiwara River has a lot of birds, egrets, kingfishers, ducks, and other waterbirds plus sparrows and pigeons. Many of them nest beside the water so at certain times a year, we can watch they learning about the world.

The Kashiwara River runs along the west side of a fairly large park that contains the athletic field where I play ground golf on Monday and Thursday mornings.