Ayase manhole cover

On Friday, my wife and I took our daughter for a several hour long walk from our home near Shonandai all the way north, following the Hikijigawa River, to Ayase City. It was the first time I’ve been to Ayase, and surprisingly not very far from here. The interesting thing about Ayase is that it’s the only city in Kanagawa without a train station. It also hosts the Naval Air Facility Atsugi, which is the largest American Navy air base in the Pacific. It’s also the source of all of the planes we hear daily. Anyway, I took a picture of one of Ayase’s manhole covers. There’s another cover, but I couldn’t get it, as they were all out in the middle of the street! But this one is the sewer manhole cover, and it features Ayase’s city flower, the rose.

This rose probably doesn’t make the sewer smell better.

2012 Picture of the Week (46/52) – Traditional

Buddhism is one of the two main religions of Japan, the other being the native Japanese religion of Shintoism.  There are Buddhist temples everywhere in Japan.  You can probably find one within a few minutes walk from anywhere in Japan.  One of the main figures of Buddhism is Kannon Bodhisattva. This week’s picture is of a statue of Kannon at Zennenji Temple (善然寺) near Chogo in Fujisawa.

This Kannon statue is about 3 metres tall.