Rainy Days

Japan and the rainy summer season. Very little sunshine and lots of drizzly rain. There is a typhoon on the way, I hear Okinawa is already getting hit and shutting down. By the time it makes it here this weekend it should be little more than a tropical storm, but still, lots of rain. Because of the rain, I haven't been out much with the camera, pictures are short here for the posts. I did take a few the other day.

Along the sidewalks through the main traffic areas, there are these strange yellow things, track like, but not. Here is a picture I took of it:

After asking around a bit, I finally found out what this was all about. Turns out, these are placed for the blind. It makes it easier to follow through busy areas using a a cane. When you come up to an intersection the pattern changes:

So here you can see where the paths cross and it leads over to a bus stop. Not sure why, but I thought this was an incredibly good (but expensive) idea. I am surprised there hasn't been a push for this back home.

On another note, here is a shot of a medium size Moped and bike parking area near the local shopping tower. It was fairly empty the day I took this.
Finally, one last picture because it always makes me laugh when things do not translate exactly the way the should. This was a sign on a pedestrian bridge crossing one of the roadways:










Please do not be a violator of the society of manners :).