Let's Enjoy Traveling in Japan!

It was Autumnal Equinox day, so we were hoping for most stores to be open. A few were closed including Tomato in the fabric district. But first we headed to the Nippori “Railway Museum” and watched and photographed trains for a while. They had installed a billboard to help you identify the different types that passed.  E235-0 Series on the Yamanote Line E5 Series Shinkansen on the Tohoku Line E233-1000 series on the Keihin-Tohoku Line. E231-1000 series on the   Utsunomiya or the Takasaki Line E7 Series Shinkansen on the Hokuriku or the Jōetsu lines Families gather at the "Train Museum" on Shimogoinden Bridge. 2500 trains pass here daily. We continued up the hill to the Yanaka cemetery where several famous people are buried. These include Tokugawa Yoshinobu - the last Tokugawa shogun, Soseki Natsume, Makino Tomitaro (a botanist). We never found any of them because it turns out that it’s a huge cemetery, and we only went through a corner of it. We did encounter Tennoji, whi...

In the morning we took the Shinkansen to Ueno. The plan was to then transfer to the Yamanote line for Nippori.  We wrote more quiz questions about our trip to our friends in Honolulu on the way. This is kind of a tradition. When they are in Japan, they send daily quiz questions to us, too. At the Ueno Station shinkansen exit, the gate ate our tickets as expected but then we realized that we were still inside the JR area and would have to board the Yamanote line without tapping in. That would be a problem because then we couldn’t tap out. Should we have purchased tickets from Ueno to Nippori? I need to figure out how to prevent this from happening again. Anyway, the agent at the entrance wicket was able to easily fix it by having me set down my phone on a console where he tapped a few keys. As we were leaving Sendai, we paused to look at this sculpture which is reminiscent of the ornament on Masamune Date's helmet.  Notice on the Sendai Shinkansen platform: Be careful of bird d...

In the morning we took the Senseki line to Matsushima Kaigan Station. We walked straight to the dock to buy tour boat tickets, ignoring the vendors at the station. We chose to ride the biggest boat with the longest tour for 1000 yen, since this was our first time. There were other smaller boats that I’m sure went closer to the islands, but I think that those would be better for return visits. Once on board, we paid an extra 600 yen for upper deck seats. The tour was both in Japanese and English, but as per usual, the explanations in Japanese were more detailed. The cruise was pleasant and scenic, giving us views of hundreds of pine islands. Various characteristics of each island were pointed out, such as “This island is said to be the most feminine of the islands”. Tradition says that there are 808 islands, but in reality there are about 260. Matsushima is supposed to be one of the three great views. There is a “classic” location, but I’m not sure where it is. Also there is a high-poin...

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”.  Chef's whimsical meal was delicious! 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.  Entrance to the Sendai Morning Market Mackerel Veggies, including myoga. 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 t...