Sep 11, 2010

Sendai Station and then walking home 12


This is the entrance to the Literature Museum. I am not sure what they have in there but it seems to be lots of historically important documents of various kinds. One of these days I will have to make a special trip to visit it. Usually when I walk by, it is either not open or I am in a hurry.The sign for the museum is the white one with red lettering (There must be some way to make a joke about a 'red letter' day, but it does not seem to want to come to me. The muses are fussy today.) The top two characters are Sendai, the next two are literature and the final one is museum.
Here is a place where they have dug out part of the hill to make a flat lot next to the road. The wall protects the houses on the hill from sliding down to the road during a heavy rain. This is a fairly frequent occurrence in Japan, particularly during the rainy season and during the fall typhoon season. Between natural landslides and deliberate flattening of the ground, Japan is becoming more and more level. For years I have wanted to get the data and figure out exactly how much earth is being moved each year. Then using that data predict when Japan would be perfectly flat, instead of mountainous as it is now.
The white fence separates the sidewalk from a river, really just a narrow stream. On the other side is a long two story building that contains a couple of bars, an apartment or two, and some empty spaces. Behind it on the hill is a large mansion, which as I have pointed out before in Japanese means condomineum.

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