There's Always a Temple at the Top

I went cabbage-garden hunting.  I must have just missed the peak of cabbage season between when I posted about cabbage the first time and now, because I found a lot of decimated cabbage gardens.  And by decimated, I don't mean that 1 in 10 heads of cabbage had been executed by its comrades.

But let me back up.  On my way to find the cabbage gardens (which run rampant around here, as previously mentioned), I took a wrong turn.  I thought I was taking the normal path (not even a "shortcut"!) to the road I had seen so many cabbage gardens on before.  But, as always happens when I take a wrong turn, I ran into an amazing sight.

Seriously, this was just right at the end of the road.  And of course, those ancient stairs lead up the side of a mountain, and of course at the top was a temple.  Well, a shrine really.

And partway up were some side steps that led to a perfectly-groomed stone pavilion.  There also didn't seem to be anyone in sight anywhere in or around any of this, although there were fresh gifts and decorations in and around the shrine.  I took a different path back down the other side of the mountain, and discovered an older shrine, which upon closer inspection seems to indicate that this may have originally been a shrine to Yoda.  At least as far as I can tell from the carvings.

This is not too surprising because Yoda seems to have been rather Buddhist in nature, and also seems to have been around for a long time.

Here you can more clearly see the carving of Yoda hold an old-timey light saber.













Anyway, on the way back to Cabbageland, I turned a corner and found another spectacular sight.

You can't actually tell from this picture, even if you can read Japanese, but the store that this road T's at has a big sign that just says "Flowers & Alcohol".  That's all they sell.  I can just guess that this is a frequent on-the-way-home stop for many many forgetful husbands and significant others.  I just want to know who the lucky recipients are!  I'm surprised this kind of store isn't super popular in the U.S.

In conclusion, I don't even think this is cabbage.