These trees grow at the top of our block, by the big Shinto shrine. For a long time I wondered what the round leafy balls were, so I called them “monkey nests” although we never see monkeys in our neighborhood. Turns out they are probably mistletoe or some other parasitic plant. But I had never seen these in America, and I like their exotic look.
In what I suspect is a twin effort to beautify while discouraging graffiti, the walls of many of the underpasses in my area are painted with murals. These are sometimes done by school kids, under the direction of an art teacher I would suppose, since they are very excellently executed. My favorite was done by an elementary school, and shows several animals on either side of a river all engaged in turning a rope that a whale is jumping. A very cute depiction of “group” and “cooperation” and – my favorite – a sheep who is pulling with all her might. I pass this sheep nearly every day, and she always cheers me up.
My favorite little sheep - isshou ken mei helping
Some of the other animals on the sheep's side
I’m going to include my first picture here (beware: makes this a 1000 word post!) Seeing is understanding.
Not just any sound machine, these are machines about the size of 2 paperback books that are located in toilet stalls – ok, there, I said it. And they make a sound like the sound of a toilet flushing. Now, why in the world do you need a machine that makes that sound in a toilet stall ? Well you may ask. The machines are there to provide another level of privacy for those most private of functions – a curtain of sound! Sometimes they have a button to push, and a row of small LEDs to track the progress of the sound experience. But the other night the machine was electronically wired to the commode and started automatically when the patron sat down, and began tapering off when the patron arose again. Pretty nifty way to deal with a densely-packed small-personal-space-envelop but we-all-crave-privacy society, ne?
This week is holiday time here in Japan, known as “Golden Week” because of the string of holidays that enable people to take much more time off than they are used to (4 holidays in a row counting the substitute day for the one that fell on a Sunday this year). To set the mood, many merchants depart from the usual pop and rock music and play traditional Japanese music instead. What a nice change! I feel so much more like taking my time in a store when I’m not being distracted by loud music. Tonight I was even able to enjoy a little boy who playfully broke into his own version of traditional Japanese dance when he heard the music. . .
