Look down. In Japan, the thing covering the sewer is often a hand-painted work of art. It started in 1977. The city of Naha wanted residents to care about an expensive new sewer system, so it made the lid beautiful. A sea turtle, in full color, on the ground. It worked. Other towns followed. Today there are more than 6,000 different designs, in roughly 95 percent of Japan’s towns and villages. Castles. Cherry blossoms. Local festivals. Fish from the nearby sea. Each one pressed into a 50-kilogram steel disc, then filled in by hand by a worker at a foundry. One cover can cost around 3,000 dollars. For the thing under your feet. The thing you were never meant to notice. Somebody painted it anyway, so that one day you would.