Driving home.

Big Coffee Cup.

Tired Dogs.

Driving home.

Spring Sunset.

The color was amazing when I left work one night last week so I broke out my camera. There is a stone shop down the road from my school. The coffee cup is about three feet across and 30 feet up in the air. Yes, that's the brake pedal between my feet. The commute is about 15 minutes to my apartment from school. I drive on a road which winds through rice fields and mixed housing and small businesses. It's a nice drive.

Mountain forest, mountain climb.

Start of the climb.

Bridge and stream and waterfall and shrine.

600-year-old Pagoda.
It is made of wood without the
use of a single nail.

The beginning of every school year is marked by a climb up 2,446 stone steps to a shrine and temple complex. The beginning of the climb is actually a descent into a Cedar forest. At the bottom you cross a small bridge with a waterfall on the right. Then you start the climb with the Pagoda on your left. It's quite a time with all 900+ students carrying on. Class pictures are taken at the top. The new students get a Shinto ceremony to bless there school life. Finally, we all go back down the mountain.