More stores and things

 This is a beauty shop near my condo. This space has changed hands many times in the last few years. It has been a barbershop, a beauty shop, a vegetable store and a couple of other things that escape me at the moment.

 Early morning in downtown Sendai, I saw this man moving beer kegs along Josenji Dori.

 The lights from Christmas are along gone and Josenji Dori is back to normal. In another few months the leaves will start coming out again and the street will resume its summer charm.

This is my condo from the opposite side of the river. My apartment is on the second floor in the larger building and against the open space.

 On my way to art class, the sky along the river was beautiful. I wanted to stop and paint it.

 After class was over and we had all gone out to lunch together, we found that there was some kind of event going on in the pedestrian way in the the middle of Josenji Dori.

 We crossed at the traffic lights and started down the length of the walk. It was line with stalls where people were sell stuff. It is hard to describe what it was. There was lots of art work and jewelry and some cloth items, scarfs and things like that. There were also some things best described as knickknacks.

 This walk was has a stature in every block.

 It is hard to see, but it you look carefully you can see a drawing of a samurai warrior in the sand. The artist was doing live performances, using his hands as brushes.

There were also some groups who appeared to be preparing to perform traditional Japanese dances.

 These are some of the decorations that were hung for the Tanabata Festival. I believe that these are fashioned after the banners that the old feudal lords used to mark their processions when they were traveling about old Japan.

 This old house is only one block away from the previous picture. In Sendai most of the main streets are lined with tall reinforced concrete buildings, but behind them on the side streets there are still many old one and two story houses.

 This store has a large collection of potted flowers in front of it, but the inside is completely empty. Apparently the company that was here has gone out of business, a common event these days.

 At around noon the people were already lining up to claim space from which to watch the parade that was scheduled to begin at 4 p.m.

 Most of the stores along Josenji Dori were selling from booths on the sidewalk. From what I could see while walking along, these shops were doing a pretty good business. Since the disaster, I have seen a lot of people downtown but those people were not buying anything, just walking around. Here it seemed to be different, a lot of money, goods and food were changing hands.

This restaurant was selling food and drinks, including beer which is always available at any festival.

Josenji Dori, the subway, and a new purchase.

 The naming of Josenji Dori is interesting. Josenji means Josen Temple and Dori means road. So the road's name is a reference to a Buddhist temple, but the temple is no longer there. I vaguely remember from somewhere that the temple was destroyed at some point, maybe during WW2, and maybe rebuilt in a location  outside of town. (I guess that I really should get a book of Sendai history.) However, the interesting thing is that although there is no longer a Buddhist temple there are two Christian churches. The above picture shows one of them. It is between the two story building and the taller structure. You can see the steeple.

 The building on the left is a concert hall. I have been there on occasion but very infrequently. I think that the last time I was there was at least a couple of years ago, when Ian appear in the chorus of an opera.

 This is another of those intersections where all traffic stops for pedestrians. The drinking area is down the side street.

 This is the entrance to the Kotodai Subway Station. The main level of the station is far underground so the stairs are very long.

 A bit of Japanese English that always reminds me that Japan will continue to need English teachers for a long time. A Season Ticket is what I would call a pass. Japanese English uses season to mean a limited amount of time rather than our "A recurrent period characterized by certain occurrences, occupations, festivities, or crops" (from the Free Dictionary).

 This is the platform which is a floor below the main level. The large red and white sign is advertising a sale at one of the main department stores. At the bottom of the sign it says Ganbarou Miyagi Ganbarou Tohoku. As I have pointed out, signs like this are everywhere, reminding people there is a long way to go and much struggle left before the effects of the tremors and tsunami are erased.

This little gadget was purchased by my wife in preparation for the next big earthquake. It has a hand-cranked generator and in internal battery. At the right end is an LED light with various levels of brightness and a blinking function. On the top are the controls for an AM/FM radio. It is supposed to be very efficient, the radio running for an hour on a minute of cranking. The light runs at about a one to ten ratio - one of cranking gives 10 of light. It was less than 2000 yen but it is missing one feature. It will not charge a cell phone. I think that during summer vacation I will shop around and find a hand cranked charger for my cell phone. That way, if we have another disaster, I can watch the TV that is built in to the phone.

Josenji Dori

 I was on my way to my first art class at the downtown NHK Bunka Center, walking along Josenji Dori. It was still early, about 9 a.m. on a Saturday morning, so there were few people. In an hour or so, after the stores start opening, there will be many more pedestrians.

 A few years ago, the fixed the intersections along here so that all the traffic stops once during each cycle of the traffic lights. At this time pedestrians can walk in any way they choose. The intersections have become one huge zebra crossing.

 As I mentioned in a previous post, there is a lot of art work along this road. This is a sculpture that is set in the corner of a building. The traffic cones and barrier are covering some as yet unrepaired damage from the earthquakes.

 This a major road that intersects Josenji Dori. On the corner there is a large apartment building. You can see the blankets hanging over the balcony rail in one of the apartments. The next building to the left is a hotel. The first floor seems to be empty now, but it used to contain a convenience store, which was only there for two or three years. Before that it contained an Irish Pub that served Guinness beer. My group of friends used it as a place to meet, even when we were planning to go somewhere else. One of the reasons that we liked it was that it was spacious and they let us move the chairs around so that everyone could sit. A second reason was that they had a kitchen and the food was pretty good. A third reason, and a very important one, was that you paid by the drink, rather than the usual Japanese practice of getting one bill when leaving that covers everyone in the group. This is more or less okay for Japanese, who come and go as a group. However, it means that everyone has to share the bill equally, no matter how much you ate or drank. It also means that everyone has to leave together. Since this place, the Shamrock, closed we have found the Ha'penny Bridge, which also serves real Guinness beer, but it is smaller and the food is not as good. One last reason for liking the Shamrock was that the young woman who managed it and the other young women who worked there were very friendly and even spoke a little English. I met one of them last December when my wife and I and a group of friends when to a second party. She came over and chatted when we went in and then came outside with us when we left.

 This sign says Ganbaro Sendai Miyagi. Ganbaro is a bit difficult to translate because of the broad meaning and the many contexts in which it is used, however, I think that "give it the old college try" comes relatively close to being correct.

These five people are from my art class. The teacher is on the extreme left and the other four are fellow students. Notice the sign board in the middle and then look at the next picture.

 The writing on the sign board says Watch out for the sign board. There is something very surrealistic about this.

We walked across the street to the MediaTech building, where some other students of the teacher were having an art show. The picture shows our teacher, Wakamatsu Sensei, posing with three of his pictures.