Around the Neighborhood

I have bemoaned the fact that I am not a photographer for quite some time; it seems that I never take enough pictures.  I live in a foreign country, and will not be here forever, so I really ought to be capturing as many scenes of my life here as possible!  A few pictures from my general "neighborhood" thus follow!

Mr. Cat (or Lord Meowington III) lives at a house near my apartment.  He is, quite possibly, the most ancient cat in the world, but always appreciates a scratch when I'm walking by.

Post offices are everywhere in Japan.  Everywhere.  I can only assume that this is because post offices also offer banking and insurance services, and because Japan post office workers would rather die than have a line fifteen people deep like the post office in my old town often had.  The larger post offices can be quite nice, but the smaller ones, like this one near my apartment, tend to be very small, a little dingy, and offer very speedy service.

Church on the way to work.  I suppose that I should go--I'm not sure, but I think it's rather remarkable that I have a church so close to my apartment--but all the services are in Japanese, and I'm too picky about my religion to go and listen to a service if I'm not sure that I agree with it.

The small, dingy river near my apartment, not to be confused with the large, somewhat-dingy river that's also near my apartment.  Normally, this river is not so high or wide, but June's the rainy season.  You can't see it in the picture, of course, but the river was moving along at a really fast clip; that duck sped on by without paddling at all.

Bad staff need not enter.  (This is actually a door to an old, narrow, tall, creepy building right next to the small river.  I have no desire to find out what's on the other side.)