Snakes and manhole covers

I've had a brilliant day. The weather was gorgeous, the flea market was crowded and lively and full of fascinating junk, the company was good (the same friend I went to the last one with), and I took lots of pictures. They are not ready to post yet because they need some adjusting (trimming, fixing the contrast, and so on) and also resizing for the web.

But here is one picture to start with, which shows the temple where the flea market was held. It also illustrates a charming detail about cities in Japan which is rather at odds with the general ugliness. Every city, or area within a city, has its own design of these:



That's right - it's a manhole cover. And because I was in Tennoji, an area of Osaka, this one shows the temple which is Tennoji's landmark. Only some of these manhole covers are coloured. The plain ones have the same design, but with no colour.

I bought some bowls today. I will post a picture of them, but probably in a day or two. Right now I'm exhausted and although I'd rather just go to bed I need to plan three lessons for tomorrow first. I left the house at nine this morning and got home at nine this evening. It's been a long, wonderful day, but unfortunately it isn't over yet. I'm thinking now I should have bought one of those dried snakes I saw, instead of just taking pictures of them. A snake strategically planted in the classroom would have taken care of my lesson plan problem. No students, no lesson plan, no problem.