Guardrails for Construction

Along this street, these orange monkeys and frogs hold guardrails to alert drivers about construction. At night, their faces and the strips on their legs reflect headlights.

This one is winking.

Construction Mat

There's more construction on our street. This time they put down this mat to show us where to walk.

Our vegetable stand man returned from his field carrying a load of onions. He rode his bike through the construction to get to his vegetable stand on the other side. Those kanji painted on the street tell drivers to watch and slow down. There is a park on the left.

Here is a post about another sign painted on the street. And the machine that painted it.

Covered Building

Houses are draped in plastic while they are painted. I posted a picture of one on December 9th. Buildings are draped in mesh while they are built. The mesh is attached to each floor along those outer railings. Do you know why?

By the way, those are electrical wires on the street in the second picture.

On the Road Again--In Tokyo

We made a trip to The Salvation Army to drop off some things. The highway was jammed so we went through the back streets. I took these pictures from the car.

I will have to post them later. The system is down and won't let me post pictures!

Ah! Here we go...


Turning right.




A building being torn down.




A billboard. Do you recognize him?




Another nice thing to look at. This hides some construction. It looks like the wave spray in the Hokusai woodblock print.




A guy walking along text messaging walked into my picture. You can't see his phone. You can't really tell that he is wearing a summertime "suit". A lightweight kimono-type jacket and pants. He is walking in front of an advertisement for a mansion or apartment house that is being built behind the wall. Apartments of a certain size (number of bedrooms and amount of space) are called mansions here.




I saw this shop closer to home on the way back. A shop with English printed on the door. There wasn't enough space so the sign painter started a new line to finish the word. That happens a lot here in composition writing in English classes. I think this is the first time I have seen this kind of mistake on a sign.

Bulldozer on Truck

Just a picture of one of those little bulldozers being transported from one place to another.

Under Construction

When a building is under construction, there is usually a bulletin board to explain what is being done. The picture shows a temporary wall. It was built to block construction and its dust. Pictures and diagrams were put in this fancy metal and glass showcase. This wall and showcase will disappear one day and a new building will appear.

A Street Scene

As I was walking home from the shops, I came to this scene being played out behind a curtain. It looked like they were staging a show. The curtains were pulled back and several workmen scrambled down from the pile of rubble. The guy on the bulldozer jumped down to take a break.

The curtains are there to block the dust. The workmen were in the process of cleaning up after tearing down a six story building. (It used to be a shop that sold gas heaters with offices on the upper floors.) The wall you see in the back is the building next door. They tore down this building that was right up against another one. Most of the work was done behind closed curtains.

I snapped this picture in a hurry because cars were starting to turn the corner. I wish I had been further back so you could get the full effect of this scene on a busy corner. Some of the men waved an 'okay' for taking the picture. They probably wondered why I wanted it. It was business as usual for them. Notice only one guy is wearing a hard hat. One guy is wearing a white towel on his head. That's usually what gardeners wear.