an eventful weekend in the area

this is a broken dragon at the shinto shrine.here's the shrine's toriithis is a scarecrow along the way to the train station. here are the dochu sand pillars. apparently, this is the only formation of its kind in the world.
this is on the path that travels down the side of the pillar, you can see how much the ground's erroded since they put these steps here.
this is a picture of a snake, click on the pic to see it larger. he's climbing up to go hide. he's dark grey, but yellow under his head, so look for the yellow spot up with the leaves then see his body hanging down from there. he was probably about a meter long.
the sand pillars from on top.
also from on top. there wasn't even a railing up there!!
very pretty day today, but warm. japan is reminding me that summer isn't quite over yet.