Before, During and After Crossing the Street

At the end of the street we ate yaki imo, roasted potatoes.


The man was also selling imo (potato) ice cream, but no one was buying it. It was getting colder as the sun was going down.



When we were eating our yaki imo, I noticed this man. He had climbed this embankment to take a picture.



I also noticed this bird sitting on top of one of the trees.


As people crossed the street, they stopped and took pictures of the building at the other end of the street.


I stopped, too. Here is the picture I took as I crossed the street. See the man way down there almost in the middle of the street? Dangerous!



Unfortunately on the other side of the street, most of the trees were female. Lots of stinky fruit were under foot. No one lingered very long.


Leaves had blown into the middle of the road. This picture was taken in front of the government building.

Dessert at Big Boy Restaurant, Tokyo

I didn't take pictures of everyone's meal. They were all basically the same. But the desserts! Look at them!

This one had green tea jelly (the green square), mochi (the round green balls of glutinous rice), green tea ice cream, adsuki (sweet beans) and whipped cream.




Purin (flan), coffee jelly and vanilla ice cream parfait with a sprig of mint.




Green tea and vanilla ice cream and a soybean purin.




Coffee jelly and vanilla ice cream with a sprig of mint. There were many more choices on the menu.

An Alternative Ice Cream & An Alternative Source of Energy

Have you ever had potato ice cream? Maybe it's not an option where you live. Ice cream made with potatoes can be found here in Japan. There is a sweet purple potato that is made into ice cream. There is also just plain potato ice cream. Here is a picture of a potato ice cream that has matcha or green tea powder in it.

(This picture was taken in the summer. See the sign for kakigori or snow cones? I posted a picture on July 26th. The signs are no longer around. You can't buy snow cones anymore. Summer is gone.)



Here is a city bus that uses compressed natural gas. It is much smaller than other buses in the Tokyo area. I think there are some cities in the U.S. that use alternative sources of energy for their buses. There are probably some in other parts of the world, too.

World Heritage Site: Other Village Business in Ainokura

I have been wanting to take a picture of the postman in Tokyo. I keep missing him. It seems I always catch a glimpse of one as he is passing by. As we were having lunch, the postman of this village zoomed by. I ran out of the shop, but he made no other stops down the street. Wouldn't that have been a cool picture? A postman delivering mail to a thatched roof house. I went back in to finish my lunch. A little later, he zoomed past going the other way. We all looked at each other and laughed.




This is one of the hotels. Below is a closer look at the beds (futon) hanging out the door. They are airing them out. Laundry from the hotel is on the line outside, too.







Here is a house that has a small soft cream stand outside on its porch. See that big plastic soft cream on the porch? We sat on the benches there and had ice cream after lunch. Beds and laundry were hanging outside here, too.

More Ice Cream

These look like slices of melon on sticks, but they are watermelon and melon flavored ice bars. The red one tastes like watermelon. There are small chocolate drops in it that look like watermelon seeds. The green melon bar has white chocolate drops for seeds. The chocolate seeds are cold and crunchy.



This is ice cream covered in a thin layer of glutinous rice. Sounds yummy, huh? It is! These have peach ice cream in them. Usually they have vanilla ice cream inside, but peach is a summer fruit and things change around here during the seasons. Especially the flavors of ice cream.

One Kind of Ice Cream Cone

Has your scoop of ice cream ever fallen off your cone? Well, it can't with this one. The cone is wrapped around the bar of ice cream. It's easy to eat. You can buy them with a slice of chocolate on top under the cone. There is also one with atsuki beans available. Beans in ice cream? Have you ever heard of that? It's good, too.