Four Days in Sendai

Day 1

We took the Shinkansen from Hachinohe to Sendai and arrived at 12:30PM. The Sendai Station is huge with tons of shops and restaurants to explore. We dropped our luggage off at Grand Bach Sendai (249 sq ft, really nice hotel with space to open two large suit cases, two chairs and a small table in room to enjoy a morning coffee, also has live musicians during the complimentary drink and welcome sweets at the lobby between 3-7pm, snacks at 7-11pm, night meal at 9:30-11pm).

Then we walked back to the station to shop and snack. David bought some camera stuff at Yodobashi Camera store—it’s huge and has just as much merchandise as the Bic Camera store in Tokyo, but less crowded.

Then we tried a Zunda Shake at Zunda Saryo. It’s a milkshake made with ground edamame which Sendai is known for. It has a mild nutty taste but is very thick. Not my favorite, but had to try it because it’s a Sendai specialty

We then snacked on these pastries from Royal Terrasse which I read was famous in Sendai. They call this “raw pie”, but it’s basically a thin crust tart shell filled with a light cream mousse and topped with crumbles of the crust and dusted with powdered sugar.We tried the chocolate and the original. Very messy to eat but delicious and not too sweet.

Back to the hotel to check in. From 3-7PM they have live music performances and complimentary Sendai desserts and drinks. Today was grapefruit juice, fruit infused water, iced coffee and iced tea and a hochicha mochi; the musician was a flute player

Early dinner at Zenjiro, a well known grilled beef tongue restaurant. When you come to Sendai, people say you have to try the gyutan (beef tongue) here. Even at 4:30PM we had to wait in line. We ordered two set menus of special thick cut grilled beef tongue. They were grilled perfectly and had a nice bouncy chewy texture. It comes with rice, salad, soup and various pickles

3rd floor of Parco has a Pokemon store selling exclusive pikachu plushies. These are the 6 festival pikachus you can buy. Each customer can only buy one of each. Gotta ask the niece which one she wants!

Here’s a closer look of what they look like. So cute! They represent the Northern Tohoku festivals and this website gives details of which festival each pikachu represents.

Then off to the AER building on the 31st floor for sunset views. Follow the signs for AER Office, not shopping. Then use the specific elevator that will take you to the 31st floor. Sun is just setting. Can you see Dai-Kannon (giant statue of goddess on the right side of photo)?

We stayed til after sunset when the sky glows red. It was very pretty! The best part about AER’s observation deck is it is free. Ha ha

Day 2

This morning, we walked from the hotel to bus stop 16 at Sendai Station to buy a day pass for the loople bus. It’s like a hop on hop off bus, and it takes you to all the Sendai tourist spots. This website give good info on exactly where to buy the tickets with photos of how to get to the ticket booth, and route map/time table of the loople bus. We got there at 8:45AM and the first bus is at 9AM. There was already a long line. Thankfully we were able to squeeze onto that first bus!

stop #4 on the loople bus is at Zuihoden, the mausoleum of Date Masamune, the famous one eyed samurai who was the first lord of present day Sendai during Edo times. (He lost an eye due to small pox as a kid.) You will see Date Masamune referenced everywhere in Sendai, from Malls named after him to cartoon pictures of him on trains, fences, posters, etc. Zuihoden costs 570 yen for admission but you get a 110 yen discount by showing the loople pass. Climb all these stairs…

And you will arrive at Date Masamune’s final resting spot. The mausoleum was built per Masamune’s request in his will and is very elaborate. It was completely destroyed in 1945 during WWII air raids, but was rebuilt in 1979.

The intricate wood carvings have the dragon motifs with vibrant colors.

His son (Date Tadamune) and grandson (Date Tsunamune) also have mausoleums here. These were also destroyed in WWII and rebuilt in 1985

The carvings are just as elaborate and colorful

stop #6 on the loople bus is Aoba Castle grounds. There’s no castle left, just the ruins and stone markers on the floor of where Date Masamune’s castle resided

But from the castle ruins site, you can see a statue of Date Masamune with his characteristic horned helmet on his (anatomically correct) horse

And great views of Sendai. See Dai-kannon (goddess statue) in the background? Also around here is a castle museum that has artifacts from the castle (we didnt go in) as well as a shrine (closed for a wedding).

There’s also zunda soft serve (edamame flavored soft serve, 400 yen) and fried zunda filled sparrow shaped cake (200 yen) at Chunchundo. Sparrow is the emblem on Date Masamune’s crest.

And a food court that sells beef tongue buns (350 yen). The buns were so fluffy and the meat inside had bits of beef tongue, mushrooms and bamboo shoots. Really yummy! The shop next door also sells these buns for 50 yen more. Both tasted the same to me…

stop #11 on the loople bus is the Osaki Hachimangu Shrine. It was built in 1607 by Date Masamune, and is one of the oldest shrines. New Year’s celebrations are held here every year.

Osaki Hachimangu Shrine

Osaki Hachimangu Shrine—notable intricate carving with black lacquer as the background and lots of gold trims

Stop #12 on the loople bus is Sendai Mediatheque, a community space building with interesting architecture built in 2001. These columns that light up at night are actually the building’s elevators. There’s also a library with photos and memoirs about the Great East Japan Earthquake and Tsunami on March 11, 2011.

After this, we walked to the covered Clis Shopping arcade for snacks and shopping .

Abe Kamabokoten has a kiosk selling hot fish balls dipped in a corndog type batter and fried (300 yen). It’s served on a stick with a swirl of ketchup. Very good when you are hungry. We also went to a bakery called Girafe Ripos and got a long croissant filled with red bean paste and a pat of butter. That was pretty good too.

Then back to the pokemon store to buy these 3 Tohoku Festival Pikachu Plushies (They are about $25 each thanks to the great exchange rates!)

My backpack was heavy with omiyage, so had to drop off all the stuff at the hotel room. Plus we already walked 19000 steps by now, so it’ll be good to rest these tired legs. Today’s snack at the hotel is mochi topped with zunda. This is one of the sendai unique sweets. I can definitely taste the edamame. Its slightly sweet and the mochi was super soft. Good, but not so good that I would crave it or miss it.

Zunda mochi at the hotel along with coffee, tea, grapefruit juice and apple juice today.

Garlic miso ramen for dinner at the JR station. Only 1000 yen a bowl, which is about $7. The egg is cooked perfectly and the noodles are aldente.

Now back to the hotel to do some laundry…

Day 3

Today, we took a 40min JR train ride to Matsushima for some boating and hiking. Matsushima Bay has 260 pine tree covered islands and has one of Japan’s prettiest views. There are also 3 foot bridges that allow you to explore 3 islands: Godaido Island, Fukuurajima Island and Oshima Island.

When we got off Matsushimakaigen Station, immediately outside of the station was a ticket booth for boat rides. Everyone was lining up there, so we did too. Tickets were 1000 yen per person and was cheaper than what I had in my notes. Well it turns out this was because it was for a smaller boat. I was initially sad, because I wanted to be on the bigger boat, but it turned out ok. We paid an additional 600 yen per person on the boat to be on the upper floor (which you have to pay extra for in the bigger boat too), and even though there were lots of people on this boat, most stayed on the bottom floor. Less people paid for the upper floor. We hung out in the back open air section of the upper deck which was not crowded and we could walk around on the deck easily.

Boat Ride Around Matsushima Bay

We took the 10AM boat out

The boat ride is 50 min long to give you a closer view of the bay’s 260 islands. It is narrated in Japanese and English, telling you the names of some of the islands or history of the more notable islands. My favorite is this one with all the natural bridges.

This one has no tree but is famous for resembling a deity.

After the boat ride, we went to Pensee’s for some oyster curry buns (400 yen each). They fill the buns and fry them here.

There’s two whole oysters in each bun!

Matsukama Sohonten has kamaboku on a stick that you grill yourself before eating (300 yen a skewer). Fun! But maybe I grilled it too long cuz the outside layer was kind of tough and chewy making hard to eat.

Godaido Island

Date Masamune built a buddhist temple in 1604 on this tiny island. One needs full concentration to walk to Godaido island’s Godaido temple, as the bridge floor has holes.

Fukuurajima Island

The long bridge to Fukuurajima Island (200 yen per person to cross) is well paved.

Here, there are mostly shaded trails

That take you to pavilions

Or overlooks to see other nearby islands

And beaches with oysters shells. The trails take about 1.5 hours to complete if you go see everything.

Oshima Island

The trails on Oshima island are not as even as that on Fukuurajima island, but nothing tennis shoes can’t handle

The island has hand carved meditation caves by ancient 14th century monks

And great views of Matsushima islands. Oshima island is small, so you can hike it in 30 min.

We were done with everything we wanted to see and eat at Matsushima Bay by 3:50PM, so we were able to catch the 4:05PM JR train back to Sendai

As we were exiting the JR station, we finally found “Baked Cheese Tart”. We walked ALL over Sendai Station on our first day looking for this dessert place and couldn’t find it. Now we know why!!! It’s inside the JR gates, so you can’t get to this place unless you went in with a paid train ticket.

We got caramel, blueberry and marscapone cheese tarts. Hummmm…not as good as all the reviewers rave about. Only the blueberry was good, and honestly, Kinotoya at Poletown in Sapporo had better cheese tarts…

Tuna, salmon, medium fatty tuna

Amberjack, scallop, tuna

Fatty tuna

Early dinner at a stand up sushi restaurant at Sendai Station (it is across from the beef tongue restaurant we ate at two nights ago). You order a few at a time, and the chef makes it in front of you. The sushi was really good…especially the torro (fatty tuna).

We then walked around the station looking for a grocery store to ask if they have salted pickled Sakura leaves. The staff there directed us to Tomizawa shoten, which had the leaves! Yay! We were searching all over Hokkaido for this, and finally found it at Sendai!

We got back to the hotel and they still had Sendai welcome desserts. Today was a red bean rice cake. It tasted like the doriyakis, except the outside was chewy as opposed to doriyakis which are more pancake like

Then at 9:45pm we went to the lobby for their “night meal”. It was a bowl of Shiroishi U-men noodles with a small crab ball and seaweed in a light broth. The description says it uses noodles and seaweed from the Miyagi region. Tasted like somen noodles in a light seaweed broth. Not bad for a freebie. We should have gone down to see what they had yesterday and day before yesterday for the “night meals”! We were just too lazy…but now we know! Will try to come down tomorrow (our last night!)

Day 4

We don’t have much planned for our last day here in Japan. Just go to the Dai-Kannon statue, then eat tonkatsu and beef tongue again. And maybe some takoyakis, my favorite. And pack. Maybe if I pack efficiently, I will find space to buy a bit more omiyage?

This website told us to go to bus stop #14 to take the bus to Dai-Kannon, but when we got there, none of the bus schedules printed there were for bus 815 or 910. So we asked the people at the bus ticket booth near the loople ticket counter and they told us to go to bus stop #18 or #19. Yep, stop #18 had the #815 bus we wanted, so we hopped on, and off we went!

The bus drops you right off at the Bodhisattva statue. And it is huge! It is one of the tallest Bodhisattva statues in the world and we were able to see it from the AER 31st floor at Sendai Station, as well as at Aoba Castle grounds a few days earlier.

Dai-Kannon from the bus stop

See how small the people are in comparison to the statue?

Enter via the dragon’s mouth. 500 yen per person, open 10AM-3:30PM.

At the entrance is a neat model showing a cross section of the statue building. The statue has 12 floors, with an elevator in the middle of the spiral staircase.

The first floor has 12 Generals of God who receive the teachings of Buddha. Each are given names connecting to the 12 animal signs of the zodiac. You can find your sign (there is English) and give an offering and prayer

Take the elevator up to the 12th floor and there are small windows to see outside. (Later when you go outside and look back at the statue you will indeed notice small rectangular windows near the left shoulder and left arm.)

Oh! Does this mean we are at the left shoulder of the statue?

Then go down via the spiral staircase to see the 108 Buddha statues on each floor. It’s pretty cool.

Afterwards, we took the bus back, getting off near the morning market to browse around. There’s a well known taiyaki shop nearby that sells sesame, custard, red bean, and zunda filled taiyakis freshly made. We got the sesame and custard ones. So good!

Then back to Sendai Station’s beef tongue alley to try a different beef tongue restaurant

The beef tongue alley even has a panel explaining the origins of grilled beef tongue and what part of the tongue is used for grilling vs stewing.

Hotel Sweets today is a zunda cream mochi. Pretty yummy!

Dinner of Pork rib loin katsu at New Babe. Presentation gets an A+. Pork itself is very flavorful and tender and it’s fun to try all the sauces. But I was a little disappointed that the katsu coating wasn’t that crispy. And honestly the only sauces that pair well with fried foods is the tonkatsu sauce, the yuzu paste, and maybe lemon juice. The olive oil, brown soy paste, and whole peppercorns didnt work.