Sendai and Matsushima

Kaori and I spent two days in Sendai and Matsushima. They're towards the north-east of the main island. At least they should be since they're in 東北. Sendai was alright. A small city by Japanese standards, and I felt like one days there really was enough, even though we didn' see all the touristy things. One of the main attractions is the "Site of Sendai Castle", which is a euphemism for a place with no castle. At least Date Masamune's statue was cool. (picture 1)

Matsushima was more interesting. There were, of course, shrines and/or temples everywhere. Most of them looked like they were made for a horror movie being shot there. There were caves carved into a rock cliff with odd statues in and around them. It was getting late then so my photos didn't turn out well. Picture 2 is a brightened version of one of the nicer ones.

We also took a tour around the islands. This is one of "Japan's 3 Famous Views". It was nice, but, growing up near water and seagulls, I can't say it was particularly amazing.

Kaori bought (reserved and special ordered) us lunch at a shojin ryouri restaurant in Entsuin (a temple). It was expensive, but not so much by shojin ryouri standards. They brought about 5 courses, all made up of many small dishes. I was hoping we'd finished about halfway through, but the food kept coming. It was a great experience, and as a vegetarian in Japan I should ave done it much sooner.

We finished the day with the light-up ceremony at Entsuin. It was quite beautiful, and NHK even came to film it. A path was lit by electric lights and candles all around the temple gardens. Unfortunately, my only good picture was of the gate leading inside.