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I stumbled across a small Japanese village (in Higashidori, Aomori) whilst playing GeoGuessr.

Along the main road you can find this brown boxes, they are elevated slightly above ground and have green curved roofs. They appear to have sliding doors but I can't see anything inside them.

The exact location for the box below can be found here.

enter image description here

If you follow the road, you can find more boxes with the same design. They are close enough that you can sometimes see the other box from where you are standing. They can be found on both sides of the road and go from the coast up to the hills.

On the front of each box is a notice, but I'm unable to read the text.

enter image description here

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    Just a wild guess, would they work as changing room for those wanting to use the beach?
    – Willeke ♦
    Oct 15, 2017 at 20:01
  • @Willeke I thought so too but they're quite short and some of them are more remote. This particular one is over a kilometre away from the coast.
    – Ambo100
    Oct 15, 2017 at 20:06
  • @Willeke,I wouldn't change in there - you can easily see the inside. But I'm not Japanese.
    – ugoren
    Oct 15, 2017 at 20:12
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    @fkraiem What makes this question more off-topic than every other [identify-this] question?
    – Ambo100
    Oct 16, 2017 at 8:09
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    @fkraiem I'd suggest taking this to meta so a community-wide policy can be established.
    – Mast
    Oct 16, 2017 at 13:56

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I finally found one of these boxes that had clear enough text.

It looks like these boxes are called ごみ収集ステーション which translated is 'Garbage Collection Station'.

It looks like the notice is also describing different types of waste and explaining how they are sorted. Perhaps collections are picked up on different days depending on their type.

According to this website for foreign residents living in Japan, bagged trash must be taken to a designated pickup point.

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    It's common in Japan for cans, glass, plastic bottles, burnable trash, and non-burnable trash to be picked up on different days; in Tokyo, you can find both enclosures like this (though they're more likely to be plastic or metal) or just marked collection points on the street due to space constraints. Different cities often have different collection days, which adds a bit of a "gotcha" to moving between them. It can be quite complex; this page is for Shinjuku (PDF).
    – kungphu
    Oct 16, 2017 at 0:22
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    Any idea why it's written "こみ" rather than "ごみ"? Is that a regional thing, or something?
    – Soron
    Oct 16, 2017 at 5:23
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    @EthanKaminski I asked on the Japanese SE about that: japanese.stackexchange.com/q/53834/18189
    – muru
    Oct 16, 2017 at 6:46
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    @EthanKaminski I answered here that it's likely a typographical error.
    – keithmaxx
    Oct 16, 2017 at 8:15
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    @Nzall I wasn't suggesting that this was unique to Japan, just giving the answer some extra relevant context.
    – kungphu
    Oct 17, 2017 at 12:20

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