A school day at Miyagi Gakuin U

 This is the view to the south from the platform at the Yaotome Subway Station. Actually at this point the tracks are raised and do not go underground until after the next station to the south. The road that goes from right to left is the main road into downtown Sendai. This picture illustrates one of the things that I like about Sendai. the triangular are in the middle of the picture is a flower garden as is part of the land on the other side of the road. Anyone who wants can apply to the city and receive official permission to set a flower garden on unused city property. When permission is granted, the city posts a sign that gives the information about the site, including the responsible person and when the five year permission will expire. These permits are renewable and mean that there are many more flowers around the city than there might be otherwise.

 This is looking north from the other side of the platform. My apartment complex is visible in the upper left - the only large building in the left half of the picture. It is about a 15 minute walk, because the river flows between the station and the complex, meaning that I have to walk along the river and cross the bridge rather than taking a direct route.

 This is at the Asahigaoka Bus Terminal. They are doing some work on the sidewalk. At present there is no sidewalk between the building and the road. It appears that they are correcting that situation so that pedestrians will have a place to legally walk while passing or entering the terminal. At present people have to dodge the buses while illegally crossing the road.

 This is the work area on the other side of the building.

 I arrived at Miyagi Gakuin U and started for the room where I leave my stuff over night. The room in the picture is on the ground floor and it is a student lounge. The equivalent of the school quadrangle is outside the windows and the rest of the building contains classrooms.

 This is the faculty dining room. The daily teishoku, or fix meal, costs only 580 yen and contains an entre, soup, salad, and desert as well as a bowl of rice. They also have various kinds of noodles and other things that are all less expensive.

 This is another view of the room. This semester I am eating here on Fridays so that I can see my friend Keith. Now that we are not going to  all the Vegalta soccer team's home games, I do not see him as much as I used to. I should probably point out that there is a large student dining hall as well as a coffee shop (still having the quake damage repaired). In addition there is a small store that sells sandwiches and there is a larger store that sells boxed lunches, sandwiches and other food in addition to school supplies. On Wednesdays I usually buy a sandwich and a bottle of tea in the larger store and eat it in the faculty lounge.

This is what is on the tables in the faculty dinning room. It is a bit different from what you would expect in the US or other western countries. The tall light brown things are disposable chopsticks and to their left is a container of napkins. The little black tray in front holds individually wrapped toothpicks in the front left and a container of hot red chili on its right. Behind them on the left is a bottle of soy sauce and on the right a shaker containing black pepper.