Jun 30, 2011

Sendai station and my apartment complex

 This Bagel & Bagel, which surprisingly is actually a bagel shop. They also sell a 'fruit bar' that is made from various grains, nuts and dried fruit, mostly cranberry, which I like very much. We cut them in half and keep them in the freezer until I am ready to have them for breakfast.
 As I crossed the bridge near my place, I was surprised to see this seagull standing in the water. We are not far from the sea, about 10 km I think, but we seldom see seagulls.
 The mother of the woman who lives on the first floor of our building dies, and after the funeral the woman, who frequently brings presents of food (my wife takes her stuff, too), brought us these flowers and said that, if we did not mind the source, she would like us to have them. They lasted for three or four days and definitely brightened up our living room.
 This is the trash collection building at the front of our complex. On the night before scheduled pick ups of various kinds of trash we bring the bags out and leave them in this small building. The bags by the way must be purchased at supermarkets and the price helps pay for the pick up and disposal. While most things must be brought here on schedule, newspapers, old magazines, and cardboard can be deposited at any time. Every once in a while a truck will stop, as the truck in the picture is doing, and pick up whatever is there. This is a free service and the truck owner will make money by selling the stuff to a recycle shop.
 This is at the official front entrance to our complex. If you look closely, you can see that the part on the right has separated from the part in the center and sunk substantially in relation to it. You can see the marks on the center section where the concrete on the right and the brick road used to be attached.
This is another set of stairs leading to the entrance. The concrete wall is badly broken and the tiles on the steps are being held in place with tape. All of the paperwork and inspections by the insurance company are finished and the amount that they are going to pay has been settled. The committee that runs our complex (we are members this year) is now deciding how to allot the money and how much of our combined savings to use for repairs. There is not enough to put everything back to the way it was before the first quake so some things will just have to stay the way they are, but the question is - What things?

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