Some haikyo are entire hotels or theme parks. This one fits on the edge of a small mountain road. It is a letterbox built in the shape of the original Nintendo Game Boy, standing alone in front of a bamboo grove, complete with a d-pad, two round buttons and a screen that serves as the mail slot. The red 〒 postal mark suggests it once received real letters. Who built it, and why exactly there? I couldn’t find out.

I first stumbled upon it in the spring of 2020, and I liked it enough to make the detour again in the autumn of 2024. Time is doing its work. The paint is a little chalkier, the edges a little rustier, but the little console was still standing at its post, faithfully waiting for mail that will probably never come.