Earthquake again

I was rudely awakened just before seven this morning by a medium sized earthquake. It was, however, small enough that my wife slept right through it. It was either a 2 or a 3 on the Japanese scale. The center was out in the ocean between here and Tokyo.

The picture in my last post, which, by the way, I sent on my way into Sendai, was of a small shrine about half way between my apartment and downtown Sendai. It is located in the approximate location of an old execution and torture ground and is dedicated to all the people who suffered and died there. The people that live in the area say that there are ghosts wandering around at night, but I have never seen one.

In the morning I had gone to art class where I drew the following picture. As usual the photo does blurs the fine lines so it does not look quite the same as the original. This reproduction is much rougher.


After the class, 12 of us whet to an Italian restaurant for a New Year party. We stayed about two and a half hours, and I got to know some of the other students a lot better than from just our time in the classroom.

After the party broke up, I walked to Sendai in the snow and took the picture of the shrine in the snow at about the midway point. A little while after I took the picture, a car swerved to avoid a truck that was making a turn. The car came almost up onto the sidewalk. The result was that it sent up a huge wave of water, snow, and ice that went over my head, soaking me completely.

I felt like I had been in the shower with my clothes on. I walked, dripping, into town and went to a bookstore that has a large collection of English books, bought something to read, and went to Starbucks for coffee and heat. When everything had dried by my shoes, I walked over to the Irish Pub, Ha'penny. Eventually six of my friends showed up. I drank wine and talked with them until about 9 when I decided that, because my wet feet were very cold, I would go home. It was still snowing so I took the subway home. On arrival, I discovered that my wife had baked a carrot cake so I ate a piece and had a cup of coffee before going happily to bed.