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Japan Photos 2025

They are Komainu (狛犬, lion-dogs) of a small shrine in Shirakawa which were made in 1903.



An A-gyo form (阿形, opening the mouth) statue is on the right side,


and an Um-gyo form (吽形, closing the mouth) statue is on the left side.
 
Same place, I re-shot this (and this is a better version of something from a year or two ago).



Which, in terms of form, is kind of like this



And the point being, those two are kind of like this, Piet Mondrian. (Or at least I see it like that...!)

 
This is phone shot of a building and windows pretty far away. And then cropped down to get this (so poor quality). I think there's something to this shot, but I'm not sure how to title it.


Compare one I saw at a local exhibit.


And a couple of unrelated tangents...


 
Yes, those are excellent.

...tho over on TCC folks would get a giggle from this one:

Pilgrim Path, Yokomineji, Shikoku, 2003
'I gravitate towards places where humans have been and are no more, to the edge of man's influence, where the elements are taking over or covering man's traces'
 

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What are these funny creatures?
Are they the characters appearing in some Ghibli film?





No, they are Komainu (狛犬, lion-dogs) of Kumano Shrine (熊野神社) in Shirakawa which were made in 1775.
 
Someone on another forum expressed surprise at some of my pics of the insides of garages, thinking that I was violating someone's space (street photography does that almost on purpose).

So here are some windows, something that offers a glimpse/hints of something of the life inside. Something shown but also covered/hidden, something private/personal but also shown publicly.

There's a song I've heard with the line, something about someone being "...a voyeur, the worst kind of thief."







The best of the bunch: (edit--note the foundation, cut rock, not concrete)










A little different, still a window.


And of course, another garage invasion.
 
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Great captures! I'd say a voyeur is an intruder, but your pictures do not intrude. They observe, perceive, and share.
 
Thanks, and more rope--not too exciting, but not bad. That in the same pile of rope, there can be three so different types lined up like this.



(Maybe this is a DEI rope picture? --good thing this is not a US forum/board, I might be shipped off to Libya.)

EDIT: Here's looking thru a window at another window. Okay, but maybe if I moved slightly left or right? --to put the distant window fully in the glass panes of the close one (to better frame it). Or by moving slightly right, using the front window to symmetrically split the distant one?



 
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I went on a road trip just over a week ago, from the 12th to the 16th. First overnight was in Maizuru, then this place:



Then on down the coast to Tottori:



I walked for a good hour there, but surprisingly didn't get any sand in my shoes. A few people used bags:



On to Matsue:




Then to Izumo Taisha:





Then across Honshu to Onomichi, and cross the multiple bridges of the Shimanami kaido--this is one of a series of bridges connecting 6-7 islands on the way, and then a pano from a rest stop after the last bridge that gets to Imabari:




Then across the north edge of Shikoku a ways to Marugame (not quite to Takamatsu), and across the old/original bridges there, Seto-Ohashi. This is looking at about half the bridge, from a small island with a rest stop--Yoshima parking area--back towards Shikoku:
(Edit: pic of Yoshima, there in the middle, from wikimedia)



The final stop was Himeji, but just for an overnight break (I've been to the castle there before).

Distance was just over 1400km. And my wheels for this, old but now just over 104k km on it.

 

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Lovely photos, and an impressive beard!

We did the same tour 2018 from Kanagawa via Kanazawa, minus Shikoku, clocking over 2,000km. These are some of the best parts of Japan!
 
Going by Daisen was okay--but it was just a big mtn over there. I was really impressed by the mtns on that northern bit of Shikoku. They looked/loomed huge, like a wave coming to crash over you. I can't imagine what the 石鎚スカイライン (route 40) would be like.

Maybe in the fall?
 
Rain now, but this morning was okay till about 10:30







This is foxglove, or dead man's bells, etc. Source of digitalis, a heart medicine, and the whole plant is toxic--flowers, seeds, leaves, stalks, roots. It doesn't usually kill, but can. Not only via ingestion, but can be absorbed through the skin.
 

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