A family of swallows made their cozy little home at the train station in Sayama-shi, Saitama, where I was staying during my recent time in Tokyo. My good friends and hosts Takeshi & Kojima’s house is located near to the station, and we were on our way to the Mucha art exhibition when I spotted this delightful sight.

(below) Sayama-shi train station, part of the Seibu Shinjuku line. The nest is found at the top of the stairs serving the Shinjuku bound platform.

The extra perch decorated with the swallow illustration is put up by the folks from tsubame-map.jp, an NPO that monitors and studies the migratory swallow population to/fro Japan.