Walking north from downtown

 This is the Tohoku University hospital. It is the biggest and best in town. At one point I was going to take over some English classes at the medical school but could not fit them into my schedule.

 This is a typical street light for pedestrians. When it is okay to walk, the red human figure turns green. The lights at the bottom of the signal indicate how much time remains until the light changes. Most major intersections where there are a lot of people have this kind of signal.

 Just a block up the street, I found this old wooden structure. On closer inspection, it did not seem to be old, but instead quite new. It appears to be part of the buildings belonging to a construction company, as is the blue truck. The building seems to be an understated ad for the company.

 The ridge line in the distance used to mark the northern end of the city. Now it is still covered with temples and a few shrines, but the city has continued to spread for miles. Because the surface of the hill was already occupied, they built a tunnel so that traffic could get to the other side.

 This is the gate into a Buddhist temple. At this point I was beginning to worry. As you can see from the sky, it was starting to look like rain and I was not carrying an umbrella. In fact some drops started falling and I stood under a roof for a while. Luckily it stopped after a few minutes and did not start again until after I got home.

Near Kita Sendai Station, I noticed this traditional style storehouse. The gray are on the wall is where part of the siding, probably concrete, fell off.