A British Village And Frog Temple

 The other night, I was scrolling through a Japanese app that combines video and photo sharing, focusing on lifestyle. I think it's aimed a young people as a lot of the content is fashion and make-up, but I enjoy the recipes and travel posts. I came across a post about an Antique British Village. I can't really read Japanese, but I can figure out a few things. The address for this place looked like it was in a small city just 30 minutes from here. I asked Hannah to check on Google Maps, and it turns out to be very close. Also, next to the British Village is a Frog Temple!

Mikey drove us out there this afternoon.

The village was nice, very cute and looked very British. The little area is called Arlington Village, named after a row of honey colored cottages in a village in the Cotswolds.

Information about the name of the village.

The first thing we saw when we got out of the car was a "Hobbit Hole"!

Cute!

It's not a real dog in the kennel!

This was in the car park. The walk down to the village was really nice!

The roadside was full of flowers.

The village itself was small, about 7 shops. The main gallery and office were closed because of the New Year holiday, but just having a look around was nice! Hannah said the weather was perfect, cold and overcast, typical British weather.

The entrance.

We had to find cats!

I can imagine being in England!

Lovely little birds on a water feature.

Coalport bricks.

I don't think they came from Coalport! There wasn't anyone to ask, maybe next time.

Of course, a selfie with Hannah!

It was really small but somehow authentic! I would love to go again and have an English Tea, maybe in the spring.

The Frog Temple was next door!  It's very interesting to be walking along, seeing all these English-looking buildings next to a temple!

The temple is known as Kaeru-dera, カエル寺, the formal name is Seieizan Nyoirin-ji 清影山如意論寺. It was founded in 729.

The grounds are very big, with frog statues all over the place.

The word カエル kaeru has other meanings besides frog. One meaning is to return. Another is to change. There are a lot of these themes throughout the temple.

By crawling through this frog's mouth, you can change your luck.

If you hug this statue and pray, all your stress will go away.

So, of course, Hannah hugged it!

Hannah in a heart

Around every corner, there was something else to see. 

This saddened me, Japanese scriblings.

This one was getting repainted because of the same problem.

There is also a collection of frog statues. We even found Kermit!

Kermit

Planes with a frog picture, so they will return.

There was this lovely wall on the way out!

We had a lovely afternoon. Lots of walking, again! But I don't feel too bad!

Unfortunately came home to David being sick! This seems to be his schedule; almost every year, at this time, he gets sick. I really hope it's just some bug he's picked up, and he'll be better soon.