The Sacred Bridge crosses the Daiya River in Nikko. The bridge is part of a nearby temple.

A woman cleanses her hands with spring water in Futarasan Shrine.

Moss finds a home on lanterns in Tōshō-gū Shrine. Originally lanterns like these served as an offering to Buddha, but later they appeared in Shinto shrines as well.

The underside of the courtesan’s colorful umbrella.

Occasionally I need to remind myself that I live on an island. I’m forgetful. To help cement this idea in my head, I visited Tokyo Bay, which forms part of the southern border of the city. Now I’m pretty convinced Japan really is an island. I saw seagulls. You’ll have to trust me about the water though. There aren’t any pictures of it here.

There are a number of islands in Tokyo bay. Only one of them is natural. This bridge connects two parts of an artificial island called Odaiba. The island was made in the 1800s and was originally used as a defense fortress. Now the island is home to entertainment districts, businesses and residences.

What fake island would be complete without an indoor mall that looks like a fake European street? A tiny casino inhabits part of the upscale shopping center, and the “sky” throughout the building periodically changes from day to night. Also featured on the fake island: a replica of the Statue of Liberty. Seriously.

Next to the mall is a 377 foot-tall Ferris wheel. At least this isn’t fake. I’ll also take this time the mention that I think it’s silly that we still capitalize the word “Ferris” in Ferris wheel. With all due respect to the inventor Mr. Ferris who died in 1896,  I think it’s time we start using lower case letters.

One of the perks of being near the bay was fresh sashimi. This wasn’t the best fish I’ve ever eaten, but it was still very good, and the presentation was nice. I like it when I can look my food in the eye.

A boy touches the underside of a giant lantern hanging from the Kaminarimon, or Thunder Gate, in Tokyo’s Asakusa district. The gate serves as an entrance to the nearby Sensō-ji Buddhist temple.

A torii, or gate, welcomes visitors to a Shinto shrine near Nippori in Tokyo.

A visitor to the shrine prepares to bow and clap after throwing a small donation into a box as part of a Shinto ritual.

Clothed statues watch over another shrine down the street.

Nearly every person in Japan is cremated when they die according to Buddhist tradition, and their remains are interred in cemeteries like this.

Visiters walk over a stone bridge in the forest surrounding Meiji Shrine.

Empty sake bottles donated by brewers throughout Japan are bound and stacked near the shrine. Sake is used in certain Shinto rites, and shrines often use the empty bottles as decoration.

A sushi chef prepares makizushi, or a sushi roll. The plates in the foreground of the picture are on a conveyor belt that carts the fish and rice treats around the restaurant. If you want one, you grab it. Different colored plates indicate different prices.

If you don’t like what’s on the conveyor belt, you can order other items from the chef. This is a delicious tuna roll I requested.

A fellow diner receives nigiri he ordered from the chef. Instead of fish rolled in rice, nigiri is made by forming a clump of rice and pressing the fish on top.

So I just moved to Japan. Now that that’s over with, let’s get to some pictures. 

The city I’m living in is called Higashi Omiya. It’s in the Saitama Prefecture, which is basically a suburb of Tokyo. The area around the Higashi Omiya train station has a fair amount of restaurants and shops and lots of lights to brighten up the night. I saw this sign for a yakitori restaurant when I was trying to find a local ramen shop. Yakitori is chicken grilled on a skewer and ramen soup is that noodle you ate in college. The ramen I ate on this excursion was much better than the college variety and had a raw egg cracked over it. This should be considered normal. It tasted fine.   A woman on a bicycle stops to check out the wares from a shop near my apartment. Bikes are everywhere around here, and sometimes you have to watch out for cyclists riding behind you on sidewalks. While looking for the ramen shop, I found a 14 story apartment building that appeared to have a good view. So I got into the elevator, which spoke to me (no kidding), and headed to the top where I got this view of the broader area. (The elevator asked what floor I wanted, but I had to push a regular button. No voice commands.) And this is the building that I went up into. The whole building kind of creeped me out for some reason. There was an outdoor staircase that went all the way to the 14th floor. That and the weird blue lights made me uncomfortable. Glad I don’t live here.