Aoba Matsuri

 Here are some more pictures of the dancers.

 I left the building while the dancing was still going on and started toward the subway station.

 One of the buildings that I passed has a large space built into the first floor. It was filled with dancers from a different group.

 This wagon was set up as an outdoor stage. I was tempted to return to downtown Sendai in the evening to see the actual festival but decided against it. I was still tired from having the flu during the previous week and there would be so many people that I would not be able to see much anyway. Maybe if I still drank, I might have gone in order to sample the sake that would be freely flowing.

At one intersection I found this group of cute little kids, who were going someplace to dance.

 Almost home I discovered that they were actually beginning to repair the road at the end of the bridge. There has been a huge bump and a deep dip at the corner since the road buckled during the earthquake.

Aoba Matsuri continued

 I went to lunch with the teacher and other students in my art class and then some of us students went to an art exhibit in Mediatek, a large public building that houses art galleries, a library, rental space and other stuff. The exhibit was reasonably good but, when we came down the elevator, the first thing I saw on the first floor was these two women.

 They were part of a festival dance group that was performing in the large open space.

 Fans are a frequent part of festival dancing.

 There were a lot of individual performances inter-spaced with larger group dances.

The music that goes with a festival, a matsuri, features drums and flutes and has a very energetic, driving rhythm, the kind that makes you move whether you want to or not.

Aoba Matsuri

 Here is another picture of the intersection at the bridge. They have flatten out all of the places that rose up or sank during the quakes.

 On my way downtown to my art lesson, I noticed that they were apparently starting work on the riverside again. However, a couple days later I passed by and everything was gone, including the portable toilet. The work crew must have used the space to get organized.

 When I got downtown, I found that the preparations for the evening Aoba Matsuri, aoba is a place name and matsuri means festival were in full swing. These two floats were waiting on a side street.

 This road is divided with a wide garden area with trees in the middle. This gate had been set up at the entrance to the space between the lanes.

 When I had almost reached the building where I have my art lessons, I discovered this group of people. It was  a wedding party going to the wedding hall that is across the street. I wonder what they would have done it it was raining?

At noon, after my lesson was over, I discovered costumed dance groups waiting along the sidewalk.

Going home

 Standing at the top of the access stairs, I looked out to the east. It appears that before all the buildings were constructed it may have been just possible to see the ocean from here, which may have influenced the shrine name.

 Starting for home, I found this green windbreak on the stairs to a two story apartment house. Many of the new buildings in Sendai have bright or at least distinguishing colors.

 Since I moved into the area, this has been an empty lot but they are now obviously starting some sort of new building, probably an apartment.

 This is a yakiniku restaurant, yaki means grilled and niku means meat. At your table you have either an open gas grill or a charcoal grill. The meat and vegetables come raw and you cook them yourself. Yakiniku is very popular. This restaurant, which I have never been in, is extremely unusual in the the name, rairai, is written in kanji that are upside down. The two largest repeated kanji on the two signs each means 'come'.

 This is a wall that collapse during the earthquake but now has been completely repaired and the temporary road that they built in the riverbed has been removed.

The next day it rained but they were starting to repair the earthquake damage to the road at the bridge nearest my home. The sidewalk pavement has been removed and the little pylons are now marking the curb.