My standard walk around the two bridges

 Crossing the bridge that goes to Yaotome, two cars were down in the area by the river. I assumed that this meant that they would be starting some kind of work again. After crossing the bridge, I turned left and walked down the levee that you can see on the right in this picture. My apartment is in the complex that is just visible on the far left.

 When I got to the bend in the river, I found that the levee top path was closed. I guess they are going to start working on repairs soon. I had turn right and follow the roads instead of the river.

 This is an Indian and Nepalese restaurant that is pretty good, but it is a bit far to walk for a meal and the servings are too big.

 Near the above restaurant is this place, a vegetarian restaurant. We have talked about eating here but it is a bit expensive.

 I found the wooden bear in the front yard of a business.

This is the workshop for a company that builds frames from iron bars. I think that most of their output goes to other factories where they add finishing and make prefab buildings or sections of buildings.

After the festival and lunch with my art class

 Walking along the levee, I found a young boy catching bugs. The grade school curriculum in Japan includes a lot of study of insects, so the children develop a deep interest in them. They catch them in nets and then take them home and keep them as pets. There are even stores that sell some of the more interesting ones, often for large amounts of money.

 As I went by, the local shrine was still wearing its festival decorations.

 The flat area nearby where the festival actually takes place was buzzing with activity as the tends and equipment were removed.

 The reason I was out was that I had an art class that day. After class, as usual most of us went out for lunch. On this day we went to an Italian restaurant that we sometimes go to. It is the most expensive of our usual places, 1000 yen for soup, salad, pasta and a couple of pieces of hot, fantastically delicious bread. There are 10 people, nine students and Wakamatsu Sensei, the teacher.

In the alcove on the wall, there was a very interesting mask which apparently came from Venice.