Instead of going to the teacher's house, we are now having our classes in downtown Sendai. I take the subway to Kotodai Koen and then walk down the length of Josenji Dori (Josen Temple Street), a tree lined avenue with many sculptures in the pedestrian walk between the opposing lanes. This photo shows one of the side streets that lead into the main drinking area in town. With my friends, I used to frequent this area at times, but we have all grown older, and broker.
This is the north end of a very long t-shaped pedestrian arcade. Most of the main stores are somewhere on this arcade, and if not, they are at the station, just passed the end of the stem of the arcade. This picture was taken before 9 a.m. on a Saturday, so there were almost no people. The workers would already have been setting up for the coming day and the shoppers would not have arrived yet.
This is a little Shinto shrine that is on the arcade. You often see people from the stores, stopping and greeting the god.
The torii (the red structure that looks like a Greek pi) that you saw in the last picture is on the right. The view is looking north and the trees in the distance are on Josenji Dori.
Subway on the right and Mister Donut on the left. It is beginning to feel less and less like Japan. When I first came to Sendai 15 years ago, there were very few American chain stores. Now they are all over the place.
This is Josenji Dori. Although it carries a lot of traffic, I always like walking along it. The large number of trees makes it seem cool during hot weather, and during cold weather, I always think of how pretty it looks when they cover the trees with little lights for the New Year / Christmas holidays.
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