Japan
Around Sasaguri
Sasaguri (our home from 1999 to 2001) is built in a valley surrounded by jagged little mountains. It is the most sacred area in Kyushu, I'm told, and its streets and mountain paths are thick with temples and shrines. The valley is carpeted with rice paddies crisscrossed with irrigation channels, and most of the buildings are crammed around its edges. Although this is a small town, and space is rare, it's not so rare that its inhabitants are forced to live without a few pachinko parlours (the right to gamble is sacred in these here parts).
It's the same sun as everywhere else, but somehow the sunsets always manage to be particularly stunning here
Rice paddy of season
A bush near our house
A tunnel built under a religious statue near or house is home to dozens of tiny statues--one of literally hundreds of neat little finds to be made in Sasaguri
A resident of the local zoo
Neon isn't enough of an attention grabber in Japan, so some pachinko parlours sport life sized models of big beasties
