Kaki. Or persimmons. Or oysters. Say kaki with the wrong inflection and you'll order something very different! (I feel ripped off - I was told there are no tones to learn in Japanese! Still, beats Cantonese... is it 8 tones!?). Persimmons are a popular fruit here and you often see trees laden with fruit in backyards and fields during summer and autumn months. I'd never been much of an eater of them before, but after being given about 4 I've discovered they are really delicious. This tree grows in a yard on the path to the station.

Some splashes of autumn colour along the creekbed that I walk past to get to work.

By the station.

This is another view of the mountain near my place. It's appearance is so variable - not just by the change of the leaves, but by the light/air. When it's really misty it becomes this brooding form. When the sun's low it suddenly has a lot of shape to it. When it's unusually clear as above, it looks like a school photo of trees... or rather, a stacks-on.

We're now in Sanda, my nearest city. When I say city, it's more like, say, Sydney's Campbelltown. I have a tendency to try and come up with an equivalent place back home to places I encounter here. They're obviously pretty coarse comparisons, but maybe it's just me making reference points to take in what's around me. Sanda has some variety though, with new-money suburbs like Woodytown and Flowertown that are more similar to say Penrith and Cherrybrook (young double-income families). There is even a neighbourhood called Culture Town which is modelled on American suburbia, utilising real Washington timber! I stand corrected - I always thought culture was listening to classical music whilst drinking out of a vegemite glass... or something like that.

The creature in the photo was sitting forlornly in a playground, which are often pretty bleak - no grass, just dirt. If you cross the river from Sanda station you enter yet another Sanda - a forgotten Sanda. Away from the gleaming monolith which is the Kippy Mall shopping centre, this part of town is more like old Japan - old streets, old style homes. The demographic seems very much older, with very few people operating tiny businesses that miraculously keep alive... although some appear closed - perhaps swallowed by Kippy.

There are great shapes and textures around here. I also had a ball taking pictures of old electric meters and fuseboxes, mailslots etc. in an old part of Kobe on the weekend.

I really hope noone actually lives in that room. It would make my "Leopalace" shoebox actually seem palatial.

Even in these tumbleweed streets, you see evidence of the big English language schools hotly contesting for business. At least 3 different schools duke it out here on this humble bit of closed shopfront.

Another business that's seen better days.

This is a rubber-band gatling gun. Well, of course it is. Also known as a little-boy-magnet. I saw this contraption at a local community festival, held in a sports ground in the middle of nowhere - an exposed spot on a freezing windy day.

I bumped into one of my students, the boy in front. Arata is standing on a pair of stilts, which were hilarious, because they were only about 5 cm off the ground! Nevertheless, they seemed to be very popular. (I am always amazed when I see kids zip around on unicylces here!)

Well, after all that talk of pitched battles fought in the streets over English business, here I am colluding with the enemy! My mate Oscar works for another company and I've also gotten to know a regular bunch of staff and students from his school who get together a fair bit.

Lastly, a shot my friend Lexie sent me - she's a friend from within my own ranks who went back home to Canada. She and her boyfriend Pat came over to teach together and I'm glad they did. They were both really genuine and had a great positive outlook on everything (like the ins and outs of working for our company), which I miss. A bunch of us farewelled Lexie, karaoking until morning. I'm not that keen on singing - but a karaoke place is easier and cheaper than a hotel after the last trains have stopped running.

Next stop, autumn in Kyoto. After almost catching up, my blog is sliding hopelessly to out-of-date mode again. Right now we are starting the second half of winter. It's only snowed twice so far, but that was enough to excite me. This winter is comparatively warm all around the northern hemisphere.

Anyway, well past time for bed! Sayonara...