At a JALT meeting

 Joanne Sato, the unofficial official photographer.

 Marc Helgesen, one of the speakers

 Some of the Chapter officials officiating

 The other speaker, John Wiltshier

The audience during one of John's activities

At a bar following the meeting

Along the river

 Straight ahead is a two story apartment building. The hole allows entrance into an inner court. I walked through it but there was no other way to get out. The space was used for parking and entrances to individual apartments.

 Back along the river, part of the path along the river is block for construction, I saw a beautiful white crane.

 Also some ducks.

 Daikon, Japanese radishes, are dried in the sun so that they can be used all winter. One of the main uses is to put them in wooden vats with soy sauce and after aging, eat them as a side dish to your bowl of rice.

This is one of the new bankings that have been built to replace those that collapsed during the quakes.

Brain Days

 The local chapter of the Japan Association of Language Teachers (JALT) had a two day seminar in Sendai about recent advances in the understanding of the brain and the potential effect on teaching languages. The first day was held in our usual venue in downtown Sendai. It started at 9 a.m. and finished at 5 p.m. Afterwards most of us went our onto the sidewalk and waited for a charter bus.

 While we were waiting this crow came and watched us. I guess it was surprised by the large number of foreigners, about half the group.

 The bus took us to the next town, Akiu, where we went to an onsen (hot spring) hotel. This picture shows the lobby and a coffee shop in the back.

 The were lots of decorations. This is a blow up of the picture in the above picture.

 At one place I found a large Chinese style ceramic and a screen.

 After a chance to settle into our rooms, we had a banquet. There was much more food than is usual at this sort of an affair. Most of the time all the food is eaten and some people are still hunger, but this time we could not eat anywhere near all of it.

This is what I got on my first trip to the serving line. It was not only plentiful but it was also delicious.l

Dessert was interesting - a chocolate fountain. The objects in the left hand basket are marshmallows and in the right cubes of French bread. We had the room for the whole evening and the hotel does not mind if  you bring in your own drinks. We stayed there eating, drinking, and talking until it was time for bed.