Peter's Japan blog

You see them all over Japan, in streets, in buildings, in temples and train stations. Boxes against the wall that have this round red light on them that is always on. I have wondered what it was for a long time (as I couldn't read what was written on it). First I thought it was some kind of security system for detecting stuff, but I couldn't figure out what it was detecting. I couldn't think of anything that would be in all of these places.

But now I know: 消火栓 means fire hydrant ;p
So these things are just fire hydrants, and it all suddenly makes a lot of sense.
It's the red light that made them look a bit ominous ;p But it's actually easy to spot them with this light.