Earthquake Diary 54

 Wednesday, April 6
Big news! According to both the newspaper and the TV we should be getting gas again today. A long hot shower and a chance to get my hair really clean! Heaven!

Yesterday I walked the 5 kilometers to Miyagi Gakuin U., where I will be teaching 5 classes a week during the coming year. I had expected to help my friend Marc, a professor there, with the after quake clean up, but some other part timers were there the day before. I helped just a little, but had a chance to talk.

On the walk over and my return by a different route, I saw almost no evidence of the quake. A few cracks and small debris, but no visible damage. Of course the insides might still be messes.

We just had another fairly strong aftershock, but no one paid much attention. I changed the to NHK to get the details, magnitude 5.0 and 20 kilos deep, a 3 on the Japanese shindo scale.

My daughter went to Sendai station yesterday and found it to be pretty normal. All the big stores and most small ones back in business. Spring fashions on display and on the young women made for a very colorful scene.

While Sendai is getting back to normal, the coastal areas still look like a war zone.

This the outside of Asahigaoka subway station. The only indication of the damafe is the blue hose hanging down in the middle of the picture.

 The horizontal grey area behind the vertical bars is the barrier separating the platform from the tracks. I could see no damage in this area, either. However, I could here some kind of work going on, on the floor above, I think.

 To get home, I walked through the park that Ian and I walk in, Shinrin Koen. In this picture you can see the cherry trees are beginning to show signs of life. renewal, just like Japan. I expect that the cherry blossom festival will be particularly meaningful this year, with its themes of impermanence and renewal.

 I does not show in the picture but under is a large hole under the sidewalk.

 Having walked up these stairs a number of times, fully expected that they might have collapsed during the quake. However they were fine.

 I found this chess set in the window of the park's administration. The men still lay where the fell, appropriate for a game based on war.

 The large fuji, wisteria, survived without problem. The sign next to the truck tells people not to clime on the trucnk.

 These workmen were repairing the pipes to the water fountain. I could not tell whether there was a leak or if it had just stopped working.

 This bridge is just outside one of the entrances to the park, actually an exit for me. It extensive repairs and reinforcements over the last two years or so. I could see no damage at all. Again the public and private efforts to earthquake structures in the area really paid off.

However, just passed the bridge I found piles of broken roof tiles that some one ha carefully swept up and pile out of the way.