Near home

 As I passed the yard where the wall collapsed, a work crew was preparing the foundation for a new wall. This one is going to be built on the same scale as the ones on either side of it. They sustained no damage at all during any of the quakes. It must be costing a small fortune to build it, though. The crew has at least six men in it, so that is costing at least 100,000 yen a day plus the rental fees for the various cranes and power shovels that are being used. Also there would be design and materials costs. However, this level of outlay is certainly better than the cost of replacing the whole house, which could easily be the case in another strong quake.

 The wall in the foreground is one of those strong walls mentioned above. Also they have taken the scaffolding down on the two new houses (light brown in the middle and dark brown and white on the right) My condo is on the extreme right. Also notice that the 'rich guy' is still farming in the small area in the right foreground.

 This is the brick walkway between our buildings. Notice how far apart the bricks have become and the long white line on the left where the bricks are a couple of centimeters apart. The center is now higher than either side.

 This is the access to a manhole in the yard between the buildings. The cover is made of stone and has cracked in three places. The yellow tape warns that this place is dangerous, something that is easy to figure out since the bricks are now much lower that the cover.

 The admin building was not damaged but the pipes under it were broken. This is where they dug up some of the pipes and replaced them. They have not repaved the walkway because that will be part of the general repairs that will be done after the settlement with the insurance company.

 When my daughter and grandson were here we received a package by takubin (parcel delivery). It contained shoes that my daughter had bought on the internet for my grandson. They were inexpensive, 380 yen a pair, so she bought enough to get free delivery. We lined them up on a shelf, much to the delight of my grandson.

 Along the river, construction is still going on. As I have mentioned in the past, they are fixing the riverside to protect against guerrilla rain, sudden heavy rain that causes flooding. They have lowered the height of the flat area between the top of the levee and the river by about a meter and they have lowered the slope of the bank nearest the river. In the case of a guerrilla rain, this area will be able to hold a large amount of flood water. The work has been slowed by the need to use the same crew and equipment to fix the damage to the riverbank which is on a branch river off to the right.