More Manholes

Since I can't exactly collect all the beautiful and decorative manholes I see, I have decided to take photos of each new one I come across. You check out those photos here and here.  Recently I took a trip to Kyoto and was expecting to see another, whole new set of beautifully decorative manholes. I was pretty disappointed when they were all pretty plain!

I did manage to find some new ones in the past few months a little closer to home:

A manhole in Okayama Prefecture showing Momotaro and friends.

Momotaro showing off his firefighting skills

A manhole from Kasaoka City which prides itself in its horseshoe crabs.

a chibi horseshoe crab

Horseshoe crabs, hard at work keeping Kasaoka fire free.

From Yoshiumi Town in Ehime Prefecture

Kurashiki Manholes

For me, one of the minor highlights of visiting any new Japanese city is seeing their artistic and interesting manhole covers. Yes, I have gotten a few strange looks for taking pictures of them, but they make the everyday and mundane into something beautiful.

Here are a few new ones that I spied while visiting Kurashiki City in Okayama prefecture last weekend:

You can see some of the other pretty manhole covers I have found here. 

Manhole Covers

One of the first things that we noticed here was the beautiful, creative, and varied manhole covers. Our city has a few different ones that I have come across, and every new place we go I notice at least another one. I love the attention to detail that is placed on even functional everyday things like the sewer system. Here are a few we have seen:

This manhole cover can be found in downtown Fukuyama and features the two symbols of the city, the rose and bat.

and in color...

This cover is bright and polka dotted with the beloved bat symbol in the center.

This cover is another common sight downtown

This cover doesn't use the typical rose symbol shown above, but a more art nouveau version. 

This is my personal favorite cover with the cute firefighter spraying water from a hose. It is the most common cover in our neighborhood.

We found this pretty festival themed cover in Onomichi during the lantern festival.

This cover features multicolor paper cranes and was found during our trip to Hiroshima City.