Ending the walk and riverbank repairs on Nanakita River

 This is the walking path going down the hill toward the station at Yaotome.

 Almost to the bottom of the path.

 The path comes out on this road. You can just see the Yaotome Subway Station in the middle. From here I walked along my familiar route to home.

 On the next day I walked along the river near my home. The water was very tempting and I almost took off my shoes to go wading in the shallows.

 The reconstruction of the riverbank is in full swing. They have brought in some power equipment and, according to the signs, they are going to build a cofferdam to keep out the water while the repair the bank and raise the river bottom a bit. The yellow stripe in the middle of the picture is actually a flag with a sign on it warning people of the construction.

The black and white objects in the picture are large woven (plastic? cloth?) bags that contain dirt. They move dirt around from construction site to construction site. When they dig it up in one place, they use it for fill in another. Also notice the temporary fence. The uprights are frogs that carry a sign apologizing for the trouble the construction is causing. 

Things I was on the way to work

This is one of those strangely trimmed trees on the campus at Tohoku Gakuin U. The reason it is so dark is that it was raining. And the sky often looks this way during the rainy season.

This is an auto dealer that is still under reconstruction. The people in the picture are students who were also on their way home after classes were over.

I spotted this new sign in Yaotome station. It is an advertizement for a radiation clinic. While there is not much talk about the reactor problem, there is a lot of concern. This concern shows up in a new daily column in the local newspaper. Actually it is a map with data superimposed on it - yesterdays radiation readings from cities in Fukushima and Miyagi Prefectures.

This was kind of strange. Look where the white car is. There is only about a meter of space behind the car. Rather than backing into this parking space, the driver went in frontwards and then turned the car 180 degrees. It five or six small turns to do it. I could not understand why he did not back in.

This is the path between my apartment complex and the riverside walkway. Actually this passes between the buildings on the right and our parking lot on the left. Below is a closeup of the flowers, which brighten up the rainy season every year.

Yaotome Station and a walk in the park

Today Ian and I took our regular Tuesday training walk through the park. I take the 6:10 a.m. subway to meet him. These pictures show the station.

The first picture shows the platform at Yaotome (8 virgins) subway station, the nearest to my house, looking more or less south from the north end. Since it is so early, there are very few people. My home is off to the left, across a river and about a 15 minute walk.




The next is from the south end of the station looking south toward Sendai, about 20 minutes away. Actually there is quite a bit of green until the line goes underground.

















This next picture is looking north and shows the train arriving from Izumi-Chuo, the last stop on the line. Off on the right side you can see the top of a dome. It is the stadium where Vegalta, our pro soccer team plays, and the stadium where I watched the rugby game yesterday.













This obviously is a picture of the new (relatively) slim, trim me. I am standing in front of one of the little ponds in the flat area of the park. Behind me is a fairly high hill. The 3 km path that we walk circles around from the right, up the hill, and back around on the left. We are doing two laps plus walking to Kita Sendai and back.










This is one of the pieces of sculpture that are scattered around the flat area. It's a chicken by a famous sculptor, but I can not remember his name.