Avoiding Izumi Chuo by going through Nanakita Koen

 Instead of going through the center of Izumi Chuo, I decided to bypass it by going south and passing through part of Nanakita Koen (Nanakita Park). While still on the road to the park I passed this store - a scuba dive shop. It seems rather strange since this is really a side street and it is a long way from the water.

 This is the last building before the entrance to the park. It is quite new, only a year or so old, but still it was badly enough damaged that it is having extensive work done on it, as is obvious from the scaffolding.

 Inside the park there was damage to the walkways. This is where the sidewalk passes the entrance to the parking lot.

 This group had a bunch of children and two foreign men and a couple of Japanese women. When I got up close enough to hear them, I realized that it was a group for one of the local kindergartens, one that specializes in early English education. I should probably point out that the person sitting on the extreme right is actually a bronze statue.

 This building contains a botanical garden, but it has been closed since the earthquake. I have been told that it is quite good but I have never managed to tour the inside. From the outside, I can see that there are many trees and large plants inside. I expect that at some point I will go in with a sketchbook and do some drawings, so that I can use the plants in my pictures.

 At this end (east) of the park there are large areas of flowers that are constantly transplanted so that it is constantly ablaze with color. The structure in the background is the south end of Vegalta's soccer stadium. Actually the stadium is named the Yurtec Stadium this year. They sell the naming rights to help pay for the operation.

 This is one of the stone sculptures that are placed around the park. In the open area there was a large group of women, probably college students. There were a few women trying to organize the group, but I did not stay to see what was going on.

A little further on I found some older men getting ready to fly model airplanes. These were small and powered with rubber bands, the kind of plane that I used to make when I was a kid. This large open area is a great place to fly planes and there are often small groups flying gliders or rubber band powered planes. I have never seen planes with an engine, and I suspect that they are prohibited.