Walking north from home and then returning

 I was walking on a back road that parallels the Sendai ByPass road. This stele commemorates the Russo-Japanese war, if I remember correctly. The stone uprights for the fence that fell down during the earthquake are still down. I would not be surprised if they are never fixed. Or maybe I should say until there is another economic boom in conjunction with a general interest in history.

 This is a local school. Notice the flight of stairs that lead down to the exercise ground. I think it is at least as long as four stories inside a building.

 I turned and went west through a housing area and ended up at Shogen on the north side of Izumi Chuo. The road is lined with huge old cherry trees. I wanted to see how big the buds had become. It looks like it will be another two weeks before they blossom. Between the cherry trees and the shopping area Izumi Chuo, there is a large pond. On this day all the water was gone and they were working on the banks. The above picture would normally show water as far as you can see, narrow but long.

 I walked around to the south side of the pond and saw this tracked truck. I can not remember seeing another truck with tracks. They always have wheels.

 Continuing east I entered the park that abuts the pond and found that almost all the water had been drained.

Finally at the extreme east end, I found some water but it was very shallow, a couple of meters lower than it would normally be.