Some of the efforts to return the area to normalcy

There were some interesting things on TV and in the newspapers and magazines that I thought some of you might be interested in.

One of the local universities has developed a new kind of panel for ceilings that is so light weight that, even if it falls on a person, it will not cause injury. It is made from some kind of filament and is projected to be relatively cheap to manufacture. Much of the damage and injuries during earthquakes is caused by ceilings collapsing, air conditioning falling, and the fire extinguishing system breaking, covering everything with water.

In Onagawa, one of the cities hardest hit by the tsunami, a group of local trade people have banded together to start doing business again. They have rented(?) a parking lot on a hillside and have placed a large number of shipping containers in it. The containers have been modified and painted to become stores. They seem to be selling every that is necessary. During the TV news program I saw a meat store, a vegetable store, a flower shop, an electronics store, a couple of restaurants, a bar, and other containers that were not shown in detail. I thought that this was a very good solution to a very important problem.

One big problem that remains, among all the other problems, is what to do about the areas that were ravished by the tsunami. There are three prefectures and many other smaller administrative units involved so the solutions will be a bit different in each locale. However, it appears that the solutions will all be similar, at least to the extent that they will all involve rezoning in ways that will limit the damage by future tsunamis. Most areas are going to require that housing be inland and on raised ground. Also there will be three of four distinct areas with port or ocean-side facilities nearest the ocean, then an industrial area, and finally a shopping zone. In some areas there may be farm land between the port and the industrial area. The areas will be separated by high levees to retard waves. The tops of the levees will carry roads and train lines. This will, of course, cost a huge amount of money and take years to accomplish, but the government seems to be serious about it.

I saw a book the other day. It summarized the damage done during March and April. Unbelievable! According to the book, there were 23,773 people killed or missing plus another 5363 badly injured. 107,748 homes were totally destroyed, 63,083 half destroyed, 298,051 partially destroyed and another 7079 that were flooded. These are the figures for insurance purposes. This is all to say nothing of the nuclear problem, for which it is difficult to get much information, but the local newspaper now has a daily column showing how much radiation is being recorded in cities around the prefecture. In Sendai we have about half of the radiation that is normal in England, so it is not a problem.

Another point from the book is the difference in the number of aftershocks. Previous earthquakes had around 50 aftershocks of magnitude 5 and above during the first 70 days after the main tremor. There was one  quake near Okinawa in 2003 that that broke the pattern had slightly more than 100. However, the March magnitude 9.0 quake had 533. And we are still having them. According to a different source we have had 1437 aftershocks of magnitude 4.0 and above.

In spite of this, things are finally beginning to quiet down a bit and on some days there are no quakes at all and on many days there are none that you can feel. Last Friday there was one while I was teaching. I was standing and did not even notice it, but the students who were sitting at computer consoles all felt it and got excited. As proof they pointed out to me that the projector, hanging from the ceiling, was swinging quite a bit. It was not bad so we just commented on it and got back to work. People are getting used to them. A quake that might in the past have elicited screams from some of the students, now hardly creates any stir at all. A quake has to be at least shindo4 to have a reaction more than a slight pause, before a return to work.

The current state of affairs at Izumi Chuo

 This is looking west from the Izumi Chuo Station building. The area had been a parking lot for a long time but they have now started construction on a new building. I did not walk across the street to look at the sign and find out what sort of building it is going to be, but I would bet a lot of money that it will be an apartment building.

 This is inside the building. They have removed temporary white walls and reopened the area for use. Also just off to the left, the escalator is now working again.

 This is Selva. My favorite Starbucks is on the left side of the doors. They have replaced the tables and chairs in the open area behind the green awnings. This makes me very happy because I truly love to sit out there in the fresh air and drink a good cup of coffee.

 This is the taxi stand between the buildings. The station building is in the background and Selva is behind me. Notice the woman in the kimono. Fewer and fewer women are wearing kimonos these day but you can still occasionally see one.

 This is the space between Selva and Ito Yokado. There is a lot of construction going on in this area. Both buildings lost tiles and have a lot of cracks and the walkway has some damage. I would guess that it will only be a few more weeks before most of this is fixed.

One of the workmen who is repairing the walls of Ito Yokado.

At Asahigaoka

 On Thursday mornings I take a 7:35 bus from the Asahigaoka Bus Depot to Miyagi Gakuin U. I get to the depot at about quarter past seven. On this morning the waiting room was completely empty. It did not stay that way long as students for one of the local private k-12 schools have a bus at 7:30. I really do not need to get there this early but I like to take the first bus, because the subway is not yet crowded, nor is the bus. If I go later, the subway cars are completely full and the bus has enough students that I would probably have to stand. Also, getting to school early is not bad since I can sit in the teachers' lounge, drink coffee, and get ready for the day or listen to my iPod or read a book. It is quiet and pleasant.

 This is the Seinen Bunka Center, covered with scaffolding and gray tarps. I wonder if the Center asked for the gray tarps so that it would not be so obvious how much work needed to be done. This is the Center where the Sendai Book Club meets. There are also a couple of concert halls where local groups put on concerts and plays.

 This is one of the outside walls of the Center. One section is completely covered and the remainder is missing many individual tiles, especially at toward the top where the movement during the quakes was the greatest.

 The first time I came here after the quakes, these blue tarps were already in place. Now they have been reinforced with slats of wood to keep the tarps from blowing away. The wall was fairly badly damaged, judging by what I initially saw. The repair work is probably being held up for one of two reasons: [1] the insurance claims have not been settled year, for example, it may not be clear whether the wall is city or private property; [2] the construction companies are all too busy and this project is on a list somewhere to be completed when the resources are available.

This is the part of the Center that faces the bus depot. There is a restaurant inside the first floor windows that I sometimes eat in before the Book Club meetings.

In the park near my condo

I have had a very busy two days. The day before yesterday, Wednesday, I got up at 4 a.m. and left home around 5:30. After walking to the Yaotome Subway station I took a train to the Kita Sendai Station, where I met Ian for a walk around Shinrin Koen, the park that we have been walking in for a few years. After returning to Kita Sendai, we stopped at our favorite Mr Donuts for coffee and donuts. Ian had to leave earlier than usual and, as we were saying goodby on the sidewalk outside, I noticed that the destination of the bus standing at the bus stop was Miyagi Gakuin University. So, I quickly hopped on and went to school, getting there before 9 a.m. This was a bit of a problem because my class did not start until 2:10 in the afternoon. However, I found good ways to spend the day. Much of the time was used trying to figure out the solution to a problem we are having with the computerized listening program. I had lunch with one of the Japanese teachers and used most of the remaining time to listen to a recording of The Odyssey. My classes were over at 5 and I got home about 6:15, a more than 12 hour day.

I have a first period class on Thursday so I leave about 6:45. The Rainy Season has started and they were forecasting very heavy rain so I decided to stay at school, leaving for my evening class late in the afternoon. A very enjoyable discussion with my friend John, followed by lunch together, occupied the morning and early afternoon. I spend the rest of the afternoon sitting in the air conditioned teachers' lounge reading a Japanese children's book about Walt Disney. About 4 I took a bus and subway to Tohoku Gakuin U's Tsuchitoi campus and again sat in the teachers' lounge, where I ate the fried chicken, rice, and vegetable box lunch, bento in Japanese, that I had bought in a local supermarket. Class was over at 7:30 and a very tired I got home a little after 8.

On my way to school in the morning there was an earthquake which, although it was large in terms of magnitude, was far enough away that I barely felt it. I was walking along the riverside at the time and was not even sure that it was a quake. Unless a quake is very strong they are not particularly noticeable if you are moving. On my way home from my last class, there was another quake. I was in the underground Tsuchitoi Subway station and again barely felt it. I was sure it was a quake because a sign that was securely attached to the ceiling started moving. Both quakes were quite large in terms of magnitude, but nothing special in terms of the Japanese Shindo system that quantifies the actually movement at each spot on the ground. They were both Shindo 4 on a scale of 1 to 7 (no decimals). This is the strongest quake that does not cause damage, although a few objects may fall over.

This is outside my condo. The ground used to be completely level here. Now, the entire area above the drain has sunk, some of it more than 50 centimeters. I took the picture as I was leaving for a short walk in the park that is next to my building and along the river.

I showed this before. The slanted portion of the facing along the river bank slide down toward the river during the quakes. I noticed that since the major quakes this section has slide even farther toward the river, opening up a large gap between the path and the siding.

This area is a popular fishing spot and the man on the other side of the river was fishing. The river supports populations of various species of fish at different times of year, so I do not know what he was hoping to catch.

On the other side of the river there is a large section that collapsed during the tremors. Very quickly it had been covered with blue tarps, but now there are sandbags neatly placed to keep the tarps from blowing away.

A house on the other side of the river was having the roof replaced.

In the large flat area of the park, some of the local boys were having a baseball game.

 One common feature of Sendai parks, one that makes baseball and other games difficult, is that the grass is usually mowed on twice a year or at most three times. You can see in this picture that it looks more like an empty lot than a nicely trimmed park.

Miyagi Gakuin University and the Sendai Book Club

The weather bureau has forecast that the rainy season will official start in southwestern Japan today. Our weather here in the north is just like the full rainy season - hot and muggy. They are forecasting temperatures above 27C (81F) for the rest of the week and rain every day. The rainy season is expected to officially start later in the week. The official start comes when a set or criteria are met, not just by rain,  heat, and humidity.

Anyway, yesterday I was posting pictures from the Asahigaoka bus depot and had shown the new red pavement on the sidewalk.

 After putting in this section of the red pavement, they cut some rectangular sections into it. I suspect that they will place bumpy yellow tiles in the holes so that people who have problems with their sight can follow the yellow or feel the path with their feet. Such tiles are on most sidewalks in Sendai.

 This is the new red sidewalk as it passes the end of the terminal building.

Arriving at the bus stop in front of Miyagi Gakuin U, I saw a workman standing there carefully eying all the women getting off the bus. I never did figure out why he was there - other than to check out the women, of course. Also the large sign was taped to the end of the entrance to the underground passage that leads to the university side of the road. It says the equivalent of Watch your step! There are no pedestrian lights here so everyone must use the passage. I do not know why the sign was put up. There seemed to be no dangerous places in or around the passage.

The Sendai Book Club

 The Sendai Book Club had not had a meeting since the first earthquake. All of the sites that we use have been closes. However, we decided to have a meeting at a hotel near Sendai Station. Nestled between some buildings I found this little Shinto shrine.

 From the west exit from the station, I walked south and noticed this parking lot. The price is 100 yen for 30 minutes according to the sign.

This is the hotel, the ANA Holiday Inn. The small area beside the building contained many plants and made this corner of the downtown area quite pleasant.

 We reserved a second-floor room with a large table and would have a seven course meal, while we caught up on our experiences during the disaster and discussed the book, Arctic Chill by Arnaldur Indridason, a very dark murder mystery set in Iceland. I enjoyed both the book and the evening. The outside balcony overhangs the planted area in the above picture and was nice but the noise from traffic was distracting so we closed the windows.

This halo hung in the air between floors in the hotel.

More about Miyagi Gakuin U

 Still at the Piano Pond, I looked down and saw this sad face begging for food. I was very sorry that I did not have anything to give to this fish.

 The waterfall at the end of the pond and the 'keys' which form a walkway across the pond to provide access to the grassy area in the middle from the paved walkway.

 Near the Piano Pond, is this fountain and rose trellis.

 On my way up to my classroom, I looked out the window and realized that the work on the school's coffee shop was in its final stages.

 After teaching a class of two graduate students, I have a conversation class with about 20 second year undergraduates. They are a good class, loud but they stay in English and their fluency is improving rapidly.

 The next morning on my way back to Miyagi Gakuin U, I saw that they had almost covered the house in Yaotome with blue sheets. This is the house that had lost a lot of tiles off the roof and had had damage to the walls. The building going up behind it is a new condo.

 At the Yaotome subway station, I noticed a ladder go up to the roof. I got my camera out just in time to see a workman disappear onto the center of the roof over the tracks.

Reaching Asahigaoka, I discovered that they have finished repaving part of the sidewalk outside the bus terminal. As they are doing in many places in Sendai, both sidewalks and roads, the pavement they are putting in is red. I do not know if this is cheaper or considered a safety feature.

At and between my universities

 This is my classroom at the Izumi Campus of Tohoku Gakuin U. The rooms are terrible for conversations classes, which is typical of Japanese universities where the rooms are actually lecture halls. These students have a class that consists entirely of pair conversations, for which they receive a daily grade based on the quantity of English, not the quality. Most Japanese students will not talk because they worry about getting the language exactly correct, something that they almost never do. This is a result of the pre-university classes that they have had.

 This is still on the same campus. The boards contain notices for the students. The campus is quite nice once you are away from the concrete buildings. There are many trees and quite a bit of grass and other plants.

 I walk home after my Tohoku Gakuin U classes and I noticed this wall which is now leaning out over the street. Before the quakes, this corner was not broken.

 The next morning I started for Miyagi Gakuin U and noticed these pretty flowers along the riverside path.

 This is in the bus depot at Asahigaoka station. I showed this electronic sign board when they first put it up. It has not been working since the quakes and the sign on it says that it is under repair.

 This is the campus at Miyagi Gakuin U. It is actually much nicer that the Tohoku Gakuin U campus. This university spends a lot of money on keeping the grounds clean and neat. Also it is a women's university, and they tend not to make as much of a mess.

 This is called the 'piano pond' because from about it is the shape of a piano The white stones in the picture form the keys. The pond has a lot of fish that are well fed by the students who come here most days to have their lunch.

Here are some of  the fish. These are small and tend to swim in circles.

PS: This is Father's Day, so Happy Father's Day to any fathers who are reading this.

Son of around the neighborhood

 I walked into the parking lot of the sushi restaurant and realized that I could see a greenhouse that was on the next road. This part of the city is interesting. There are rice paddies, greenhouses, and vegetable gardens mixed in with the houses and stores.

 This is the entrance to the sushi restaurant.

 A closer picture of the window in the above picture reveals plastic (or wax) samples of the food that they serve. Most restaurants will have a set of such samples near the door so that you can see exactly what you are going to be served. They are a great benefit to foreigners who can not use Japanese. You can always drag a waiter or waitress out to the samples and point to what you want. I can remember doing that myself a few times when I first came here. The samples are very realistic, good enough to eat. I have seen a number of TV programs that show how they are made and treat the people who make them like artists, which they actually are.

This is the Izumi Campus of Tohoku Gakuin U. As you can see they have completely finished repairing the outside and I believe that all the inside is now usable. There are still a few places around the campus where you are not allowed to go but everything seems functional now.

Around the neighborhood - part ???

 This is at the front of my condo complex. The red box is a mail box. Mail boxes in Japan are this bright red so they are very easy to spot. On the left is a telephone/electric pole but between them is an object at the top of a blue pole. This was not here the last time I noticed.

 This is a closeup of the object at the top of the pole. It is obviously some sort of meter ant it appears to recording some sort of accumulated statistic. I looked at it carefully but there was nothing on it to indicate its function. I tried goggling the various things printed on it and the best that I could find was that one of them is the designation for a transponder. Considering that their is a grade school very close to here, my best guess is that it is a radiation meter that is sending data to some researcher or government office. I will try to find someone who knows what it is.

This is one of the beautiful old trees that separates the parking lot at Seiyu from the road. The row of trees also keeps much of the noise from the parking lot away from our complex.

This is a little park at the corner where our road crosses the main road. The grass is uncut and getting very tall but some of the grade school kids still play here.

This is the front parking lot at Seiyu. They are working on the tower that rises above the entrance. We are still expecting that supermarket and a reduced version of the department store will reopen in July.

A week or so ago I posted a picture of this same spot. On the right is a closed restaurant on the second floor and a computer store on the first. I said that I could not remember what had been there before, but at the time it was being used as a parking lot. Now,

This is the sushi restaurant that is to the left of the last picture. I has posted the progress that they made in at first just protecting the roof with blue tarps and then actually repairing the missing tiles. That work has been done for a few weeks. Now, the home on the street behind the restaurant is getting its roof repairs. Although there is still a lot of damage visible, in most places the worst of the destruction has been repaired, at least temporarily, and they are beginning to get to the lessor damage. This is not true of the areas ravished by the tsunami. There work is still focused on removing the debris. However, on a local TV news show yesterday, they interviewed people at some stores in Kesennuma, one of the hardest hit cities. The stores and restaurants were being reopened even though the buildings were still just hollow shells. On store had their products lined up on boxes on the sidewalk. One restaurant was using a portable gas stove as the only source of heat, but they were trying to get everyone's life back to some resemblance of normal.

Changing the subject completely, my life has changed substantially. Yesterday the cable company came and installed our new TV/telephone/computer system. All the channels on the TV have new numbers and the remote has a large number of new features. Also there are a lot of new channels. My internet connection speed has been increase by 33% and any telephone calls we make to AU phones are now free anywhere in Japan. The whole package will cost us substantially less than we were paying before.