On the Highway to Nagano Prefecture

Watch Out for Monkeys!

These highway curtains were open. In the background on the right, the curtains are closed.



Misty mountain scenery.


A bridge.

This truck of Japan's self defense force is heading for the area hit by an earthquake in Niigata Prefecture last spring.

Click on the label below for more pictures of Japanese highways.

At a Rest Stop

Look at the size of this camper. It is really compact.

This is a loud speaker. It is probably used for emergency announcements.

Big Sister took this picture of the reflection in our car. She wanted to see if it would work. It did!

Roadside Color

Another season, another trip to the mountains! We usually don't travel so often. This is pampas grass along the highway to Niigata. I didn't see any growing this year in our area of Tokyo. I only saw it in flower shops. Pampas grass is a decoration used for moon viewing in September or October.

The hillsides and mountains are changing colors.

More fall color. More pampas grass. Concrete walls are built on hillsides to prevent mudslides onto roads. There was a fence along this hillside , too.



Even more pampas grass. A gas truck on the road, too.

This picture of a baseball game was taken through the pampas grass as we sped by on the highway.

More fall color.

Scenes of the City

We went across town to a doctor's appointment. Here's what we saw from the car:



Heading toward Shinjuku, Tokyo.


Traffic jam. Can you see the big bowling pin? Click to enlarge the picture. The pointed building in the middle is the NTT, Nippon Telephone and Telegraph, Building. I posted a picture of it last spring.


Two new overpasses are being built. See the big flatbed truck? It seems trucks have gotten bigger over the years.


A view of a city street from an overpass. Note all the trees. They are really big ones, too.



Another view from an overpass of a city street. Are there any trees? There's a sign with something written in English. Click to enlarge.


A garbage truck about to go into a tunnel.


Another tunnel. Note the greenery and the staircase along the left side.



Here's a billboard for a canned coffee called "Boss". The man is a famous American actor. Do you know who he is?

Loose Ends from Our Trip

There were a few pictures that weren't included in any posts about our trip. Perhaps someday there will be a gallery, but for now I'll post these as Loose Ends.




I took this picture and the next one near the inn where we stayed. These guys were using this long blue hose to spray water or pesticides on this field. I have a feeling it was pesticide or weed killer.





I have always been advised (by Papa) not to take photographs in a cemetery. The atmosphere here was different. This gravesite was in the wide open spaces of a rice field, behind a home, and next to a kitchen garden. It was part of the scenery and part of daily life.

It may look like a single grave but it is, in fact, a gravesite for a whole family. The long narrow stone bears the family name. Permanent vases and an incense burner are at the base of the headstone. There is a stone slab at the foot of the headstone and small altar. It covers a small hollow space or tomb. Ceramic jars of the bones of the deceased are placed there. There is a stone to the left of the tomb. The names of the deceased family members and the date of their passing are inscribed on the stone. Once, while scrubbing the stones and pruning the shubbery at our gravesite, I asked Jiji, Grandfather, how many jars could be placed there. He said maybe 15.





This is a picture of a "doorknob" at the inn where we stayed. It was on an interior sliding paper door. Our old house had these kinds of "knobs".





These were soybeans drying in the sun. They were near the foundation of one of the thatched roof houses in Ainokura. In the area outside the village, I saw small bundles of soybeans. They were hanging on the eaves of houses. Dried soybeans are eaten as a snack.





I took this picture of an old mouse trap at the thatched house where I lost my shoes (see August 24). Mouse traps haven't changed much over the centuries. Click the picture to enlarge. Compare the one I posted on August 8th.





A country road. This highway had two lanes and it had a view. Note, too, the signs (like in Tokyo) that tell drivers there is a telephone up ahead.

On the Way Home

This was the fence in front of our car in the parking lot near the thatched roof house we visited.


This screen was outside the thatched roof house.




An ice cream stand in the small town down the street from the thatched house we visited.



This is a vending machine at a rest stop on our way. For 100 yen, a small toy in a plastic ball rolls down this spiral path. I have never seen one like this. We didn't watch it in action, but it looks cool.




These are wind generators on a high hill.




At a rest stop along the way, there was a case of ropes with a story. A neighboring ruler had told the residents of the area that he would not attack them if they could make a rope out of ashes. People in the area recently tried to make one and came up with this and two others.

On the Way

We went through the city to get to the highway. I'll show some of those city scenes at another time. Some stretches of highway have blinders along the sides as it moves through residential and urban areas. The sky looks dark and ominous, but we didn't run into much rain. (Actually there was a lot of talk about a typhoon blowing in, but it never reached us or Tokyo.)




There are rest stops along the highway. Here is one that has booths or stalls that sell food.




This booth sells fried noodles, soba, octopus balls...




and frozen cucumbers on sticks among other things. I was looking at and taking a picture of the frozen cucumbers when the guys who were making octopus balls started putting on a show and posing.




This picture was a little unexpected gift! I didn't even have to ask. I guess many tourists pass this way who want a picture. Note the man in the back is doing the peace sign. A lot of people here do that when they are having their picture taken. I'll try to get pictures of the whole process of making octopus balls at another time. We had to get on the road again.

Scenes of Tokyo

This highway sign lights up to show where there is a traffic jam.




On the streets of Tokyo, there are small buildings called koban where police are stationed. They keep an eye on things. Here is one that has a nice fountain on the side. There is a sign out front that says "Danger!" in what looks like a blue water splash.




The orange streak under the traffic light is the Chuo train line. The line crosses through the center of Tokyo, but not all of it is up over the streets.




Just a street scene at dusk in Nihombashi, Tokyo. Note the guy on the bicycle on the sidewalk on the left.

On the Highway in Tokyo

Most of the highway here has two lanes going the same way. High walls separate the lanes from the lanes going the other way. You can sometimes go miles and just see nothing but walls on both sides. There is little or no shoulder of the road so if there is a problem with a car or an accident there is nowhere to get out of the way. Everyone would have to stop. It would cause a traffic jam that could last hours.

The sign above tells drivers to drive quietly. It says "quiet" in Japanese. What does that mean? No noisy motorcycle riding, horns, etc. Actually, horns are rarely used here.




This sign lets drivers know that there is a phone up ahead for emergency use. It says "SOS".




This is the phone. I took this picture as we drove by so it's blurry. I will replace it when or if I can get a better one.




This sign points to the nearest emergency exit. There was one 120 meters away. I was unable to get a picture of the exit. I saw it as we passed. It was a staircase that led down to the street below the highway.