Walking with Ian

Today, Ian walked from his house to my home. We then walked together back to his house. Finally I walked home alone.

The road that we walked on is called the kanjosen and it is essential a bypass road that goes around the west side of Sendai. The problem from the point of view of walking is that it goes over a fairly tall hill. If you have read some of my other posts, you will have seen pictures of the Kannon on the top of the hill. Well, to get to Ian's from my place we have to walk very close to it so I took a closeup so you see what it looks like.

The two road pictures are the kanjosen, up and down the hill. As you can see, there are lots of trees and it is not too bad to walk on. It would be a lot better is there was not so much traffic, especially trucks.


The final picture shows something that was not in the day's plans. It is the local police station near my home. As I was walking along on the kanjosen, I found a wallet and a change purse. There was only 1,144 yen it so I almost just left it there on the chance that the owner would find it. However, closer inspection showed that the owners driver's license and some medical papers were also in it. So instead of walking home as I planned, I took a side trip to the police station where I turned them in. Being Japan, there was a lot of paperwork involved, including all my contact information. When you find something here and turn it in to the police, they locate the person and make them give you an award or at least contact you, thanking you and then appologizing for the trouble they caused. The police also make them give you a reward consisting of 10-20% of the value of the item. I said I did not want to be contacted and did not want a reward, but I still have to complete the paperwork, because the 1,144 yen would become mine if no one claimed it within six months. This is a good deal if you find a lot of money, but for this it was a waste of time.

Anyway as I was leaving the building, I stopped to take this picture. As I was getting set, an off-duty policeman came over and asked if I need help. I said "no" and told him that I had just turned in a wallet and was talking a picture for my blog. He thanked me and offered to give me a tour of the inside of the station, but I declined thanking him for the offer. Politeness is one of the wonderful aspects of Japan.