Another festival

 I started walking down the shopping arcade in downtown Sendai and immediately ran into a festival. The object in the back is an Omikoshi, which is supposed to be a temporary home for the god as the festival goers take him or her around the area.

 Here is a little bit better picture of it. The long bars sticking out in front and behind are use to carry the Omikoshi.

 Looking back after I passed, I could see lots of people.

 This little shrine is nestled in between the stores and is home to a god who is supposed to bring his worshipers good business. Notice all the things laid out on the table in front of the shrine. These are offerings of food and drink.

 This banner contains the name of the shrine that is sponsoring the festival.

I was thirsty and wanted a sweet so I stopped at a Starbucks and had coffee and a cookie.

On from Izumi Chuo to a meeting with Tony

 From Izumi Chuo I took a bus about 5 kilometers to my dentist's. Rather than going to a dentist near my apartment, I go to one who is near my doctor's, and I go to that doctor because I started going there when I lived in his neighborhood for two years more than 10 years ago, plus we like him. Also the dentist is very good, too. This picture is the waiting room. The torture chambers are off to the left. The staff here consists of a husband and wife, who are both dentists, and a couple of young female assistants.

 After the dentist, I took the bus and then the subway to Sendai Station. This picture shows the main floor where there are omiyage shops, places to buy presents for people when  you return from a trip. These are usual food of some kinds. Sendai specializes in beef tongue products as well as many kinds of cookies and other sweets. They also sell something called hoya, which is a bulbous kind of thing that grows in the ocean. I am not sure whether it is animal, vegetable or mineral, but I do know that, even though many people consider it a delicacy, it tastes terrible.

 I was here to meet my friend Tony and this is the Starbucks at which we planned to meet.

 This is Tony buying a coffee. He is the one in the middle, the only foreigner in the picture. In the station area there are three Starbucks within a hundred meters, two are actually in the station and one is in a next door department store. This one is on the bridge that goes over the tracks of the local railroad lines.

 In front of the station there is a strange stone sculpture in the center of a roundabout.

At the foot of this escalator, the store sells imported food and specialty foods from Japan. Actually it started as a coffee bean store but expanded and now sells many other things. There is another store in this chain which we frequently utilize in Izumi Chuo.