Welcome to issue 46 of Random Japan, the original random look at Japan, presenting one or more completely unplanned and random shot or shots that may or may not be interesting, shots that show what regular everyday life is like here.

Today, rice balls, a painting job that seems to have not been well planned, and… religion.

Oh yeah, and also there is a contest of sorts. I know I know, I still haven’t posted the winners of my haiku contest yet. Don’t remind me—I am painfully aware of that embarassment. This one will be more foolproof. Catch me after the photos for details. Until then—

Let’s get started. It’s time begin…

Random Japan

_{Hungry for Rice Balls}

Hmmm… rice balls. Better known in Japan as onigiri, rice balls are extremely popular and found pretty much everywhere. They are exactly what they sound like—balls of rice (often in triangular form)—usually with something in the middle: fish, sea weed, a vegetable, kimchi, etc. Mmmm… good stuff. I wish they had these in the States. I miss the convenience store onigiri whenever I visit my folks.

_{Not Enough Space}

This is an odd one. Do you think the painter intended to have the writing round the corner like that? Seems more like an “oh crap” moment to me, but then he didn’t want to start over again and just hoped no one would notice or care. And probably no one does. English is mostly for decoration here and people mostly mentally filter it out, so few may even notice this.

_{Jesus Awaits}

If you can’t see that sign, it says this is a Baptist church. I don’t know for sure, but it seems like most Christian churches in the country are probably of the Catholic denomination. I’d be interested in hearing the stats if anyone knows them. This is to date the only Baptist church I’ve seen in Japan, at any rate.

---

That’s all for the photos for today. Now about that contest:

I want to encourage more people to resteem my posts and spread word about my Random Japan project, as well as bring more awareness to the #randomjapan, #randomasia, and all related tags.

To that end, an easy contest. Pick a favorite photo and leave a comment about why it’s your favorite. Resteem this post. Gimme an upvote. At post payout in 7 days I will put all the names of people who met these requirements into a randomizer and whoever pops out gets 1 SBD.

Sound good? Good luck all, and—I promise I will get around to posting the winners of my haiku contests (the contest and the smaller contest on my 100th translation) soon. I already have both judged, I just have to write up the posts announcing the winners and send out the money.

---

With that out of the way, that’s all, folks. Thanks for reading. Come back tomorrow for another random journey into the land of the rising sun. See you then.

If you like this random photo from Japan, be sure to check out @kaliju’s great Random Korea series. The latest entry there is Random Korea #24 - Gloomy?

Also be sure to follow @kafkanarchy84, @maxinpower, @boxcarblue, and @wllmdnnd for even more random Japan fun! @jrvacation has the occasional randomjapan post too. Also, be sure to follow the #randomjapan tag for more from Japan and #randomasia for random shots from the entire area.

Are you a Japan-based or Asia-based photographer who posts somewhat random photos from the country? If so, use the tag #randomasia, and #randomjapan (or randomASIANCOUNTRYYOUAREIN) on your posts. Also, join our Discord group. DM me on Discord for a link to the server.

Do you want to use this photo in one of your projects?
You can! See here for details.

Missed a past Random Japan? I’ve got you covered!

Index Posts

• The First Dozen
• The Second Dozen
• The Third Dozen

Recent Posts

37. Float On
38. God Likes Clean Hands
39. The Thunder Rolls
40. Buddha’s Noodles
41. The Old Sea Dog
42. Through the Eyes of a Child
43. In The Shadow of Fujisan
44. Boys Day is Expensive
45. Strange Names

	David LaSpina is an American photographer lost in Japan, trying to capture the beauty of this country one photo at a time.