Sendai City Office, revisited

When I was there in March, the Sendai City Office was a shelter for those who had lost their homes, or could not return to their homes following the tsunami and earthquake. (I wrote a litte about it here.)

When I revisited the office in August as part of my stopover in Sendai for the Tanabata festival (posts here and here), it had already been reverted to its original purpose. But the ground floor had been converted into an exhibition area of sorts, with pictures, posters and messages of encouragement from all over Japan.

An old man looking at pictures of various recovery efforts in Miyagi prefecture.

There were several other random visitors like ourselves in the building. Few, however, would have strayed from the festive happenings just outside, at Kotodai Park.

Messages from Nagano prefecture…

Poster on the right with different depictions of the heart symbol – from the Japan Sign Designer Association

Hand in Hand – a message from Odaiba, Tokyo

There were fukinagashi streamers hanging at the entrance of the office. At the information counter you see here, I remember asking for directions and details of the number of people who had evacuated to the city office, back in March.

The long yellow banner is from Kobe city.

Fukinagash streamers i adding some colour to the otherwise rather plain facade of the city office. Back in March, the driveway was packed with military vehicles, which were deployed to the city for relief efforts.

From where I stood as I took the last picture here, we were asked to make the difficult decision whether to turn back to Tokyo or remain in Sendai. Looking back, it was still one of the toughest decisions I had to make in my life.