on a walk or two

Most mornings if the sun is out, I get out for a walk.

My route changes with my feeling, but I try to walk at least 2 miles.

Sure the weather these days is freezing, but it gets me out of the house, I get a little exercise.

Here are some things that caught my eye...

This dahlia was huge! love the color too.

I thought this banner was cute.

It advertises ika-yaki and tako yaki (grilled squid pancake & octopus balls), they don't sound appetizing in English, but are pretty tasty, though I do prefer okonomiyaki.

This shop says they are "uchu-ichi" (ooh-choo-itchy) which means they are number in outer space...okay.

This tree stump was huge!

I noticed there were about 4 or 5 like this along the same road.

Too bad they had to cut these many trees down, but I have a feeling they were encroaching on the electrical wires above.

In Japan, land is premium so they often divide what in the U.S. would hold 1 home into a piece of land to hold 4 or 5 homes (or more).

If you click on the photo, it will enlarge, the orange arrow is the walkway for the house that is built, the green arrow is the walkway for the house next door, there is about a foot or so in between the houses.

Both of these houses don't have a garage. Most times you need to buy more land to have a garage. (or sometimes people park they cars on that walkway, where the arrows are)

I once heard that you needed to show proof that you had a garage before being able to purchase a car. But nowadays there are parking lots in residential areas, so I think that rule is no longer valid.

The yellow arrow shows where they plan to build another house.

I call this puzzle housing, because it is like a jigsaw puzzle.

My gripe with this type of building is that you lose the meaning of your windows if you are the houses in back (orange or green arrow).

If I pay for a window to be put in, I would hope I would be able to use it without having to look at my neighbor (or being able to touch their house from mine).

Been noticing these heavy, heavy kaki (persimmon)...almost like water balloons....splat!

I like the look of these garage doors, most are metal, but these are wooden, kinda reminded me of Paris.

Liked the re-use of these huge tea pots as watering cans.

There was a bald tree filled with these red berries which I found out is called "sanshuyu" or cornus officinalis.

6 heron in the trees. I usually see them in the river below, but I guess maybe they were trying to warm themselves up in the sun.

The wind has been icy, we had a teensy spurt of flurries, but overall, the sun has been out.

What have you been seeing on your walks?