neighborhood temple

Just around the corner from our apartment we have a lovely temple called Zigenji.  A few weeks ago, I woke up freakishly early and took these photos just as the sun was beginning to rise.

I'll do a video of it soon. It certainly deserves it.

styrofoam terrace garden

Yesterday, I spotted some clever styrofoam repurposing on our walk through town.  There parked on the cement wall of the canal: a vegetable garden.  Old coolers reinforced with packaging tape and neat wooden frames filled with soil and plants.

Well mulched taters.

Bonsai with mossy feet. 

A small tree.

So give that trash a second thought; you never know what could grow into a garden.

Boo!

From the top of one of our local temples, an onigawara.

digging for treasure

Awhile back I interrupted this rosy-cheeked fellow to ask what he was doing.  Rocking Wellies and smelling vaporous, he very graciously demonstrated his digging-for-odd-crustaceans technique. At the time, I thought he called them tejiro, but both Kenkyusha and Google have concluded I'm deluded.

Regardless, of my confoundings here's visual evidence of the transparent shrimp-like critters.

Anyone out there in the black pit of the web-o-sphere know what these critters are called and how I can eat them?