A walk to the Post Office

It's been snowing pretty much non-stop for a week now, and I am more than happy to stay indoors close to the woodstove and hang out, but I ventured out yesterday to take something to the post office. The PO is in Tanijyugo, the village in the next valley upstream, and to walk around the mountain there is about one kilometer. These are snapshots I took along the way.

My neighbors Camelia (Tsubaki) bush.

Another neighbor has a Hassaku tree. The hassaku is a hybrid of mikan (satsuma or mandarin). They will be ripe in a couple of months.

The local Hachiman shrine. The tori is still decorated for the new year.

The temple in Tanijyugo is Chogen-ji, belonging to the True Pure Land sect, the biggest sect in Japan. The temple is fairly new and made of concrete, but the gate and bell tower are wooden and much older. I have become interested in the different designs of temple lanterns.

Then back home to Shimonohara.

Next winters heat. I've been heating my house by wood for the past 5 winters. My total heating bill each year comes to about $20, which is spent on fuel for my van to haul the firewood. This pile for next year is fir, trimmed from an 80 year old tree in the Tanijyugo community center grounds. People are only too happy to have me come and take away wood.