Kappa and Tengu wood carvings. Two different creatures from Japanese mythology. The Kappa is an aquatic vampiric creature with a bowl of water on the top of the head. It loves cucumbers, and if someone can trick it into bowing and spilling the water it'll lose all it's strength. The tengu were thought to live in the tallest mountains, and be the original teachers of ninja. Wood carvings were a specialty of the town, and these two are on the smaller side of some we saw. One thing the artists pride themselves on is using only a single knife for the entire process. Which is an insane concept for some of the larger pieces. I would have taken a picture, but most store owners asked that I did not, however, the size of some would make it impossible to fit in even a small SUV. How people here would take it home, yet alone get it from the shops to their cars parked 10 minutes away was beyond me.