I lived for nearly four years in Japan, from 1988 to 1992. These are just some of my favourite photos, I'm not really a very good photographer but Japan is an extremely photogenic place. I spent my time in Japan studying the language, working and scuba diving and walking in my spare time.
Japan has a great tradition of storytelling and hence a plethora of mythical creatures.
This is one of my favourites - the Kappa. The Kappa is said to be amphibious but needs to have the vessel you can see on his head full of water if he is to survive on land. This is an ancient saga from China known in Japan as Songoku. Sandy is in fact a Kappa. So the Kappa originated in China and eventually came to Japan a few hundred years ago.