We stayed that night at a Daiwa Roynet Hotel, which are always nice, reasonable, and a little bit funky. This one served cut-to-order sashimi for breakfast, along with an item on the buffet called “Chef’s Whimsical Meal”.
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| Chef's whimsical meal was delicious! |
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| Sashimi for breakfast. |
After breakfast, we went to the nearby morning market for more apples and some plums. There is something to be said for Tohoku apples. They are always flavorful, never bland. I especially recommend kiou (黄王 yellow king) apples. These apples, developed in Iwate prefecture, are large, deep yellow, and flavorful; not too sweet. The flesh isn’t hard, so they are easy to eat. They are picked in early September.
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| Entrance to the Sendai Morning Market |
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| Mackerel |
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| Veggies, including myoga. |
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| Plums |
Our luggage had been filled with souvenirs to the point that we had to put our clothes in the duffel bags we had brought with us. The duffel bags we wanted to send ahead to our next hotel rather than lug them with us through train stations. I think the best thing to do is to see if your hotel will handle that for you. Our hotel really made it easy. At first they gave me the form to fill out, but then we started struggling to fill it out, so I asked them to do it. They didn’t seem to mind. Then they called our next hotel to confirm that it was OK to send our bags to them. I think they wanted to confirm that we had reservations there. Finally, they wrapped them and weighed them and gave us the receipt. Super easy!
We got tickets for the Loople hop-on, hop-off bus. Boy, was it crowded as this was a tourist line on a Saturday. The first stop was Zuihoden: the tombs of Masamune Date (the one-eyed dragon), and his family. The dark mausoleums are set in a quiet forest and ornamented with intricate and colorful carvings.
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| The Loople Bus |
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| Up the stairs in a cypress forest. |
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| Zuihōden (瑞鳳殿) Mausoleum of Masamune Date. |
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| Ornate Carvings |
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| Ceiling Details |
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| Tsunamune Date's Mausoleum |
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| Always neat and tidy. |
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| The Date clan's Zuihō-ji Temple (瑞鳳寺) |
Next stop was the hilltop site of Date's castle. There is a sweeping panoramic view of Sendai from up here, and a statue of Date himself wearing his off-center crescent crest on his helmet. Also Miyagiken Gokoku shrine where they were having some kind of craft fair.
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| Sendai Panorama |
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| Masamune Date |
The next leg of the Loople bus took us to the National Treasure Hachinamgu shrine. There were lots of stairs and lots of chochin (paper lanterns), and a broad tree-lined approach to the shrine. Another beautiful shrine, but what I found most interesting were the sub-shrines where one could pray for a specific type of wish from the various kami. Some of these shrines were really tiny.
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| Festive paper lanterns brought to you by karaoke and beef tongue joints. |
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| The god of seafaring, navigation, and fishing, this Kotohirasha (琴平社) shrine has a torii gate decorated with shide paper strips. |
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| The sign at the bottom is telling kids to stop chasing the dwarf chickens around. |
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| Kashimasha's shrine. He is the god of martial arts and determination. |
Now it was time for lunch but we could find nothing to eat, so it was back on the bus to Sendai station. The driver we had for the first two legs of the bus ride was great. He was cracking jokes that we couldn’t understand and the other riders were laughing out loud. He would dispense some fact about a sight along the way and the other riders would react with a へー, just like on a Japanese variety show. The last driver, however, drove jerkily and didn’t call out upcoming turns and stops, so the passengers bounced around the inside of the bus like pachinko balls.
Back at the station we found a good Korean restaurant on the top floor of the Loft building. We were able to get seats at the counter that was right up against the large curving window, so we had a good view. I was also able to order my meal mild. After lunch we went to Hands and Yodobashi for omiyage shopping. At Yodobashi I was able to get a model of the Sanriku train we rode. It was the last one in stock.
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| Sendai Station from the Korean restaurant in the Loft building. |
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| Model of one of the trains we rode. |
I think we got dinner at the 7-eleven that was at our hotel’s ground floor. It had been a long, but fun day.
