sometimes honjo is pretty

Yesterday the sun was shining so I set out to get some vitamin d and enjoy (the eternal) freshly fallen blanket of snow.

my park looks pretty in winter

the shrine at honjo park

my hood - you can see my school far in the background to the right if you enlarge this - it's the big white rectangle. mt. chokai almost made an appearance, but slipped back into the clouds

here's probably the only wide grassy public space in honjo that's not a rice field. on the left is the wonderful swimming pool where I occasionally swim laps, and the mountain in the back is the one the naked men (and me) had to climb for their festival


another view of honjo - the building in the foreground is city hall. You can also see the central cultural institution of honjo: the JC department store, and behind that, the affectionately named 'pink hospital'. From city hall everyday they blast a noontime and a 5pm 'end of work day' (or for most japanese workers, a 'let's gambatte for the next 4-5 hours of work') tune through speakers around town. It feels very institutional, but the songs are certainly more pleasant than military bugles and at least there's no reveille.