Still walking

 This is the downtown shopping mall. It is in the form of a large T, that includes a number of kilometers of walkways.

 Sendai now has a pro basketball team. The team members, the tall guy in the middle is one of the players, were spread out around town, giving away paper ads about the game schedule. The attendance at the games is very low and this was obvious a PR stunt aimed at increase interest and attendance at the games.

 The shops generally open right onto the walkway. Many of the stores actually pile the stuff they are selling in the space in front of the entrance.

 This big banner says some that is roughly like "We won't lose!" or "We won't be beaten". The obvious reference is to the earthquakes and tsunami.

 Back ten years ago of so when I used to go out drinking and carousing with my friends, one of our favorite starting points and sometimes finishing points is on the third floor of this building. It is a jazz club, where they constantly play jazz and  sometime have live concerts. It is named the Vilivan, but when it first opened it was called the Village Vanguard. According to the story that I have heard, it was featured on a TV program about Sendai that eventually aired in the US. The real Village Vanguard objected and threatened legal action, so this place changed its name to Vilivan.You can see the name at the top on the right just under the horizontal blue stripe.

This is another place we frequented. It is beer garden  in the basement. Most of the customers were young, in their early 20s, but that meant that it was cheap and we could stay a long while. They also have some semi-enclosed rooms where you could get away from some of the noise and some of the cigarette smoke.