A beautiful winter day.

 Walking across the bridge on my way to Yaotome, I noticed that the snow had clearly marked the places where the surface of the sidewalk had cracked during the earthquakes. Most of the sidewalks in the city are like this, cracks every four or five meters.

When I got to the other end of the bridge, I saw that the driving school building that had been badly damaged in the quakes was almost completely gone. I also realized that behind that building the driving school had another much newer building. I wonder if they will just use the new building or if they will build a new structure. Driving schools need space for administration and for classrooms. Japanese driving school give a lot of classroom instruction before the students can get anywhere near a car. In addition to the rules of the road, the students must learn about how a car works, engines, transmissions and that sort of stuff.
 

 A while back I showed the Christmas tree and other decorations that were in the hall of the building where I take my art classes, now that it was just after New Year's, the Christmas stuff was gone and were replaced by Shinto New Year's decorations.