What Alice Found There

I have so much to write about! There have been lots of red tape and paper work going on with school, which I don't think I'll ever write about, but there was also a trip to Hirakata with some friends, which I don't have time to write about, even though it was tanoshii (fun)! Instead, I'm going to show you pictures of my walk between the school and the seminar house.

Here are some cute little tanuki (raccoon dogs) lining a wall. In Japanese folklore tanuki spirits are "mischievous and jolly, masters of disguise and shapeshifting, but somewhat gullible and absent-minded." (Thank you Wikipedia!)


Here's the front of a house that I thought was pretty.

And here's a park. I've seen kids playing in it before, but today it was vacant because of the rain. Although a children's park, the area is solemn and quiet. The air reminiscent of a shrine or some other holy place.

Look! A friendly gate guardian. What do you think her name is? No, I don't know what the kanji beneath her says. I'll do some investigating.

Well, that concludes my tour. I wanted to include some pictures of the narrow and winding streets, but there were always people walking on them, so I was somewhat reluctant.