Waking up super early was the theme for this trip. We checked out of our hotel at around 7 AM and headed towards Shinjuku Station to head towards our next destination: Sendai. As you can tell in the picture below, streets were quiet early in the morning.
The trip to Sendai was about an hour long. Not knowing that the Shinkansen to Sendai was reserved seats only, we had to stand by the doors. As we arrived at Sendai and exited the station, the first thing I noticed were the various amount of streamers set up to celebrate the upcoming Tanabata Matsuri or Star Festival. Even though it's normally celebrated on the 7th day of the 7th month, Sendai does it in August. From my understanding, they base it on the Lunar Calendar.
Our hotel was only a short walk from the station. We dropped off our luggage before heading towards the bus depot to find the Sendai Loople Bus that would take us to the touristy spots around Sendai. Since the Daimyo, Date Masamune was credited as the founder of Sendai, many sites were dedicated to him. We started with his Mausoleum, which was extremely grand.
Besides his Mausoleum, I believe they had constructed Mausoleums for his son and grandson as well.
After our first location, we ventured onto the ruins of Aoba Castle (Sendai). We got to try Gyu-tan (Beef Tongue) here, which is a dish that is well known in Sendai. I quite enjoy beef tongue, but it was extremely exquisite here! Also, if you get the Loople Bus Day Pass, they give you a 100 yen discount on your meal.
After checking out the souvenir shop and purchasing some snacks for relatives, it was off to our final Date Masamune spot - Osaki Hachimangu. This shrine was, (as I found out today) constructed by Date to honor the Shinto God of War. Hachiman. Hachiman was also viewed as the general guardian of Sendai.
After visiting these three sites, we headed back to the hotel to check in. Our triple room was quite spacious and each bed was quite comfy. After settling in for a while, we headed back out to visit Matsushima, which housed one of the "Three Sights of Japan". Being only a 30 minute train ride, we got to the location quite quickly. What makes Matsushima famous is that it has 260 islands covered with pine trees. It was hard to view it from the ground and we weren't able to make it on a tour boat to venture around the bay to see the islands. We did, however, manage to walk to Fukuura Island via a long red bridge.
Not staying too long since there wasn't much else to see, we headed back to Sendai to grab a bite at Tokyo Soup Stock located within the station. I first noticed this chain restaurant back in 2014 when we were leaving (or was it arriving) Narita Airport, but I never tried it out till this day. I had to say that my meal was extremely good!
Finally, as we ventured back towards our hotel to crash for the night, we stumbled across a Zunda Shake stall. Sendai is known for the edamame treats, and a Zunda shake is apparently one of the more famous edamame snacks. It was essentially a vanilla milk shake with a hint of edamame.
Extremely delicious.
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