Japanese sculptures all around Tokyo.

It is clear to me that Japanese pride themselves on their culture and it be shows trough on what decide to immortalize in stone.

At the base of the Tokyo Tower are the statues of 15 Sakhalin huskies that accompanied the first Japanese expedition to the Antarctic in the late 1950s. The statues, which have stood near the broadcast tower for more than 50 years, include those of Taro and Jiro, the only dogs that survived after being left behind when the Japanese team returned home in February 1958.The statues are to be moved to the National Institute of Polar Research in Tokyo. The move is part of an afforestation project on the tower grounds.

Some of the most beautiful renditions of the days of old I have seen in stone.

A small shrine to stop by in your busy everyday life on the go.

A shrine to put some offerings on and make sure to have some fresh flowers.

Komainu, often called lion-dogs in English, are statue pairs of lion-like creatures guarding the entrance. Meant to ward off evil spirits, modern komainu statues are almost identical, but one has the mouth open, the other closed. This is a very common characteristic in religious statue pairs at both temples and shrines.