A trip to Parktown

 Last Monday, I had to go to Takamori (tall forest in Japanese), an area of Sendai to the west of Izumi Chuo. The part where I had to go is about 6 kilometers from my condo. I had visit my doctor to get the results of a physical exam and more blood pressure medicine. I also had a dentist appointment. Both doctors' offices are very close together and almost next door to the building that houses Miyagi U faculty members, where I lived for two years before buying the condo.

This first picture is of the pond in the East Takamori Park. I was surprised to find koinobori (flag like objects that are tubular and decorated to look like koi, or carp) strung on a rope across the pond. Usually koinobori are hung from a flag pole in front of a house with a young boy as part of the Boy's Day festivities.

 This is my doctor's office. Takamori is in a larger area called Parktown, which is a developed area where people can buy lots and construct houses. However, there are strict rules and one of them says that any business must be in the same house where the owner lives. Therefore, my doctor lives on the second floor and the first floor is devoted to the clinic. His wife runs a physical therapy clinic as part of the same organization. The whole place is very well equipped with most of the same equipment you would find in a larger hospital: EEG, X-ray machine, ultrasound, etc.

 This is the far side of the same building and shows the entrance into the clinic. The waiting room is on the right side.

 Between my doctor's and my dentist's there is a shopping center called Caraway. It has not been able to compete well with the new larger centers that are being built in the area and the supermarkets have been opening, closing, and being replaced with great regularity. The building was badly damaged in the quakes and has not reopened. This is the scaffolding that now surrounds the building

 This is what would normally be the entrance to the first floor of the two story shopping center. Now some farmer has brought vegetables and is selling them from a truck parked in the walkway.

 This is the shukusha, faculty dorm, where I lived for the first two years that I worked at Miyagi U. We lived on the second floor in the end apartment on the right. It was a large apartment, a 4 LDK (four rooms plus a living, dinning, kitchen area. It was a good place to live but I knew that I would have to move when I retired after my eighth year, so we bought the condo when the chance appeared.

 It was too early for my dentist appointment and also I had to pee, so I walked to the park on the far side of the shukusha. The park is quite nice, especially all dressed up in spring green.

I thought that this tree was particularly interesting. Maybe I will draw it some time.