See the TURTLE of enormous girth!
On his shell he holds the earth.
His thought is slow but always kind;
he holds us all within his mind.
On his back all vows are made;
he sees the truth but mayn't aid.
He loves the land and loves the sea,
And even loves a child like me.
—Roland, The Dark Tower

Wait, what—samurai turtle?!? Actually I have no idea. But... well, could be. We have ninja turtles, right? Why not a samurai turtle too?

This angry guy is outside Okazaki Castle. I'm not sure why or what he is suppose to be. The only sign board is in Japanese, in a style old enough that I can't make heads or tails of, which doesn't make me feel so bad because neither can my wife^[1].

I took this with my 10mm lens. It may look like I was a foot or so away, but in reality I was so close that I had to put a finger in front of my camera to make sure I didn't bump it into the statue and scratch the lens.

Wide-angle lenses are fun ^^

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

1. Or so she says... But that may just be her excuse to avoid having me drill her with questions. ↩