More in my neighborhood

 This is the inside of the supermarket next door to my apartment. The sign is a shortened form of "Do Yasui" which is a combination of the English word "Do" and the Japanese word "Yasui", meaning inexpensive. Aside from being totally incomprehensible to most Japanese, it does look foreign and therefore good.

 I am not sure what is going on here, but the pile of stones makes it look like they are landscaping, putting in a Japanese style garden.

 I have shown this gate, behind the car on the left, a number of times because I like it. However, on this day as I passed, I discovered that the house behind it was being torn down.

This is looking through the gate. You can see the large power claw which is used to bite into and tear apart buildings.

Construction going forward

 I was walking home along the levee when I noticed a power shovel in the river. It was removing the coffer dam that had protected the first part of the replacement of the banking. I guess that it is now high enough above the surface that it is not needed anymore.

It looked like some kind of science fiction creature coming out the water.

In Izumi Chuo the snow was piled up along the pedestrian walkways.

Construction in the area and my apartment building

 This is the space in front, on the north side, of my condo complex. There is major work going on but no one seems to know what they are doing. The picture was taken from our parking garage.

This is the view to the right of the above picture. They are moving around huge piles of dirt and concrete chunks.

 This is the reconstruction of the river bank. The picture was taken from the bridge to Yaotome.

 This is a second construction project along the river. You can just see it in the picture from the bridge.

 This is the entrance to my building. It was the only part of our building damaged in the tremors. A contract has been signed to do the repair work but the company is having trouble finding workmen and supplies.

 These are the stairs leading up to my apartment. You can see the door at the top of the stairs. At each landing there are two apartments. Straight ahead is the door to the elevator, which we seldom use.

More construction and deconstruction

 This is along a branch to our river. They have rebuilt the levee and are now returning the river bed to its normal condition.

 I went up to the second floor of our parking garage so that I could see what they are doing in the old police area. The last of the multistory buildings is almost down.

 Also they have removed the bridge that remained from the time when this area was a driving school. They are also removing all the pavement.

The rich guy's house is completely gone.

Construction in my neighborhood

 Here they are beginning work on the destruction of the building. It is directly in front of our apartment complex and a long time ago was a driving school. Then it became a practice area for the police department. The rumors are that they are going to build a junior high school here, but all I know for sure is that all the buildings are coming down and the roads are coming up.

 This is also the beginning of the destruction of a building. This house is on the riverside and is finally being replaced after being severely damaged in the quakes. On the first floor you can see that they have already removed the siding. It is a huge house by Japanese standards, ten rooms. The owner said that they are replacing it with a much smaller house.

 There is also construction going on along the river. They are replacing the river bank where it was damaged in the quakes or by flooding after one of the summer taiphoons. The are building a coffer dam so that the new concrete siding, like what you can see in the foreground, can extend a meter or more underground. I took the picture from the bridge to Yaotome.

 Here is a view that shows the way they are moving dirt around on the levee. The place where the cars are parked is the flat area where the summer festival takes place.

 This is Futakashira Jinja, Two Pillar Shrine, where we visit on New Years. The man is a priest and he is raking the leaves that have started to fall in volumes.

This shows some really weird plants. I have never seen anything like them before. They are thin, white, and very lace-like. This was the only place I have ever seen them.

Festival dance groups

 I was at Sendai Station and, as I passed along the front of it, I saw a large crowd and heard loud music with a strong beat. I maneuvered my way to the front and found that some festival dance groups were performing. The group in the picture were preparing to perform.

 This is the group who were on stage.

 They were quite good, but I needed to get home so I had to leave.

 As I crossed the overpass on my way to the subway entrance, I had a good view of the current state of the construction for the new subway line.

 Arriving back beside my apartment complex, I saw that work was progressing on the repairs of the river bank.

The next day my wife and I and some friends went to a restaurant near Miyagi U, where I used to work. The weather was still nice so we were able to sit outside and view the roses.

Street scenes and manju

 On my way to the Sendai Book Club, I saw another building being torn down.  There is so much reconstruction going on that equipment is in short supply and delaying many of the projects. Also raw materials are hard to find, even concrete is hard to get. Also many places are trying to do repairs but are finding that that things that need to be replaced are no longer being made, many of the companies having been destroyed by the tsunami.

 Here is another building with a lot of damage. Repairs seem to be just getting underway.

 The building in  the distance is the center where the Book Club meets. I have shown this wall a few times. For close to a year, it was cover with blue sheets. They are finally repairing the surface.

One of our neighbors brought is some kusa manju. These are balls of sweetened bean paste covered with rice that has been beaten with herbs. I love them. When they arrived there were about ten of them. They are wrapped in dried leaves and tied with something string-like that has been stripped from a plant.

 When I thought to take pictures, the rest of them were already eaten. They go very fast when we can get them.

 This is one that has just been opened. The beaten rice/herb combination is a translucent green and quite pretty.

This picture, in which then end of the manju has been bitten off, shows the bean paste in the inside. Manju go very well with various kinds of green tea. I also like them with coffee.