Here's a sign I saw in Matsumoto, Shinshū:

The character for mountain is shaped like a mountain — to a greater extent than usual, I mean — the character for town is shaped like a house. And the character for, uh, "[fancy or religious] hall," now liberally applied to restaurants and bookstores, is shaped like... the right shape to counterbalance the mountain on the left. Well, maybe it's supposed to be some kind of fancy hall. I see a roof with shrine-like decorations, a grand staircase out front...

Also, something I came across in Yanagizawa Kien 柳沢淇園's 1843 Unpyō zasshi 雲萍雑志 ("Cloud-and-duckweed [i.e. capriciously drifting] miscellaneous essays"):

Most people who keep a cat as a pet do not know how a cat should be raised/maintained (やしなふ). They put dried bonito and meat in its food. [But] cats who eat nothing but rich food do not catch mice. Cats should be given boiled wheat with miso soup. No other food should be given to them. If you allow them to get accustomed to eating meat, when there is no meat they are sure to go to other houses and steal the fish or meat there. The same applies to raising/maintaining people.