Still walkin'

 As I was walking, it started to snow really hard. These to young women came walking out of the snow toward me as all three of us passed under the bare branches of the Shogen cherry trees.

 This used to be a small shopping center with a supermarket and a couple of small stores plus a coffee shop. I have no idea what will eventually replace it, but it is an empty lot now.

 This is the Shogen cherry trees. The are beautiful in the spring but we will not be here to see them.

 I love the moss on the old cherry trees. I keep thinking that there must be something artistic to do with it but as yet I have no good ideas.

 The cherries are along a ridge line. At the end of the row of trees, there is a slope down to a pond. It was damaged in the quakes and they are reconstructing it.

After turning the corner and walking parallel to the concrete work in the previous picture, I was in a position to see the pond. The water level is very low but during the rainy season, the water will fill the area.

Now up in Shogen

 These pretty flowers were in a little garden beside the road.

 Mom-and-Pop stores have almost entirely disappeared. Some of them have turned into this - a collection of vending machines next to the sidewalk.

 This is the Shogen police station. As with most local stations, it seems to be staffed irregularly. If you need the police you can call them, almost everyone has a cell phone these days. But the staffing of these small stations puts officers in the neighborhoods where they can be seen.

 These are the cherry trees that were so beautiful just a few weeks ago.

 This tree is on private property and is being trimmed so that it will not interfere with the power or telephone lines.

The sidewalk on the south side of the street was badly warped and cracked during the earthquakes. This work crew is repairing the damage.

Still on the ByPass

 This is part of the display outside a shop that carves stone statues, etc, for temples, shrines, parks and gardens.

 This is across the street. It is a shop that sells Buddhist altars and other Buddhist paraphernalia. Many families have a large altar somewhere in their home. It will be dedicated to deceased members of the family and food and drink will be left as well as incense burned. There will usually be black and white portraits of the deceased. Some people, particularly wives, will kneel in front of the altar, light incense, ring a small gong, and then tell the deceased about the events that have been taking place.

 I turned off the Bypass and started walking toward Shogen, which is on the hill behind Izumi Chuo. This tree covered area apparently belongs to the temple that is off to the left. On the other side of the hill there is a graveyard.

 I was quite surprised to find that one of the old wooden house was being demolished. Many houses in Sendai do not look damaged from the outside but have so much internal structural damage that the city has condemned them.

 As I moved further up the hill, I found that another house had already been torn down and the one in the back was also being destroyed.

The trees along the road here are severely cut back every year (In the past I posted pictures of the trimmed branches with any leaves). Now they look a bit strange. If they were not trimmed yearly, they would be almost round.

More blossoms at Shogen

The cherry blossom pictures do not need any comments, but this one does. It is in a little sitting area in the park but beside the road. There are a few benches and a local group has planted flowers in the planters that are in the area. This picture says something very strong about typical gardens planted by common people. The flowers are placed in straight rows of the same color. You see this all over the city. I must add that temples often have gardens and they are completely different - no straight lines and mixtures of plants and colors. The gardens in Zen temples are particularly well know. However, common people, not monks, do not use Zen principles, they use geometry.

Out for a walk

 I walked along the river bank and enter the Nanakita park, where I found some men flying model airplanes. They were gliders, made from balsa wood and launched with elastic.

 At another place in the park, I found a group of women planting flowers and an old man sitting on a bench watching them.

 This is the front of an animal hospital. Altogether there are nearly 15 of these little statues.

 I took a path through the park in Shogen and found that the pond, that last week had been empty, was now filling up again.

 The path went up and down between the tops of the low hills and the water level. At one of the high spots, there were trees that were planted with mounds around them.I have absolutely no idea why.

In between some of the mounds, I found this mysterious object. It was very carefully made with rectangular openings in the base and at about a hand's width up from the bottom. The x-shaped hole at the top was filled with dirt and grass.

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.

Walking along the Shogen heights

 The sidewalk along the northern, cliff-edge park in Shogen is lined with cherry trees. In the spring, when they are in blossom it is beautiful here, but at this time of year with the leaves all gone there is also a kind of austere beauty.

 This strange looking tree is cut back every year, but for some reason it was not trimmed this fall, so the summer growth of branches is still there.

 Most of the leaves are off the trees but this little one was still hanging in there and contrasted nicely with the gray around it.

 The buildings on the horizon are in downtown Sendai. The Shogen heights are tall enough that there is a good view of the city.

 The first floor of this building used to contain a mom-and-pop store but it has been converted into a long row of vending machines selling drinks and cigarettes.

 I must try to find out what the name of these plants are. The red berries and deep green leaves are so Christmasy.

This is someone's collection of bonzai. They are on a shelf beside the road. It is so nice to be in a place where things can be left out with little fear of them disappearing.

 I had walked through Shogen from east to west, passing Izumi Chuo on the north side. Now I was at the point where I could take a road back down the side of the cliff, now merely a hill, to approach Izumi Chuo from the west. Across from a 7/11 convenience store, I found an open field, flanked by large trees. The pond that I showed yesterday was in the valley behind the trees.

 I realized that these were chestnut trees when I discovered the ground was covered with chestnuts that were still in their protective covers.

 At the end of the field there was a row of low concrete posts separating the field from the road. Someone had carefully placed a small pile of mushrooms on top of each. If I were more gullible, I would think that this was some sort of strange Eastern ritual.

 As always, everywhere you go, the buildings are covered with scaffoldings and repairs are underway. I think that it is going to take at least another couple of years before the obvious damage in Sendai is repaired. The tsunami hit areas will take even more time.

 About half way down the hill, I passed the site where a community meeting building had stood. A work crew was mostly finished with the job of tearing it down. I assume that it had been too badly damaged in the quakes to use.

These are the steps up to the meeting place and what remained of the building.

Walking in Shogen

 This is the local police station. These little stations are one reason that you see police frequently. They come in a car and then patrol on bicycle. Many of these small stations are more or less randomly occupied, as far as I can tell. They all seem to have small bedrooms and sometimes are occupied for 24 hours at a time.

 This is a supermarket that closed. It appears that the stores in Izumi Chuo are doing okay but some of the stores that are relatively near by, and are old, are not profitable. People are going to the newer stores that are a bit further from the station.

 This is the Shogen Post Office and, as you can see, the earthquake damage is finally being repaired.

 The Shogen cherry trees are beautiful in spring. They are even pleasant to see at this time of year when the first leaves are beginning to fall.

 At the foot of the cliff which marks the boundary with Izumi Chuo, there is a large pond. Usually this would be all water but the level in very low this year.

The top of this small hill boasts a housing area, but the cut for the road did not survive the quakes untouched. To support the wall they have place this row of oversized sandbags. The actually cracks in the ground have been covered with blue tarps to keep the water out.