So as the name suggests, this is part two as I put out two updates today, so keep that in mind if you want to hear the whole story!
So vacation arrived, and I decided to go to Sendai. To travel with the Shinkansen, go somewhere else, and explore like I did when I first came to Japan. I ended up half traveling with a classmate called Rose; we had different plans, so we would sometimes go to the same place and eat out most evenings, but some days we were also split as we went for different things.

So I came to Sendai without much of a plan. I wanted to try their specialty dishes, visit the mausoleum of Date Masamune and see the Daikannon (More on those below!). But for the most part, I didn’t have a plan, so when Rose asked me if I wanted to join her to visit a castle, I was more than happy to tag along. Little did I know, the entire castle was destroyed in an earthquake, and the only thing left was a piece of wall on the mountainside that, to me, looked more like a foundation. But on the top of the hill where the castle used to stand is now a shrine and a little museum and some shops. Here we got to try one of Sendai’s famous snacks: Zunda, and it tastes super good! Zunda is a coarse, sweet paste made from edamame beans crushed and seasoned with sugar and salt.

The castle itself was owned by Date Masamune, a famous warlord from japans Edo-period. He was the founder of the Sendai clan. So the most influential person in all of Sendai’s history.

When Date Masamune was getting old after having conquered most of Japan’s Tohoku region, he ordered the construction of the Zuihoden, his final resting place, and mausoleum, showing his wealth and power. Later his descendants would make similar and smaller mausoleums, making this area the burial grounds of the Sendai clan. Sadly a lot of it was destroyed under the second world war air raids. So a lot of it needed to be rebuilt after the war, but they are as stunning as ever, and one can only imagine the power and wealth this clan had at the time.

Of course, I needed someplace to sleep, so to save some money and do something I only know is possible. I had booked a capsule in a capsule hotel. For those who don’t know, a capsule hotel is a super cheap hotel that can be used for anything from travel, to just stay at if you are too drunk to find home. Well, I believe the pictures show very well what you get, a locker and a capsule usually with light, small shelves, a plug and a curtain for some privacy. This one, like so many others, is split by gender, so the 3. floor was for men, while the 2. floor was for women.

I knew Sendai had a big statue (The Daikannon) of what I thought to be Budda but is of “The bodhisattva Byakue Kannon” (Thanks, Google!). Who is another person/god..? Who reached Buddhahood. It’s the world’s fifth-largest statue, and when it was built, it was the largest statue in the world! And luck would have, like the last time I was in Japan in 2018, the major attraction is under restoration. So all the lines you see on here are supposed to be white, and people were climbing all over her working. But lucky for me, it wasn’t closed, and it was almost completely empty of people! Insite it, you will see a lot of different Budda figures, statues of the generals of Budda, who became the guardians of the zodiac signs..? Well, in short full of buddas in all kinds of sizes, Japanese Oni, wooden statues bigger than me, and it was in general, just a pretty and awesome place to visit.

Here is one of the things I thought I had learned from my trip to Kyoto in 2018, but I clearly didn’t get the memo. It doesn’t take a long time to visit most shrines and museums. So I visited a lot of different shrines, walked down the Sendai road, and ate some of Sendai’s famous Gyutan (Cow tongue). It was wonderful, but also tiring, as you keep walking around seeing stuff and walk to the next see some more. Your legs are starting to get tired, and you think; “this was a nice day”. You look at the clock, and it’s 16:30, so there is still plenty of time in the day. So having visited and tried what I was hoping to do, I started to look at other things to keep me entertained while preferably not requiring a ton of walking up mountain sites and steep stairways.

One of the things I found was that the local university (Tohoku University) had a lot to offer, including a historical museum, with everything from dinosaur bones to beautiful minerals. It was a nice break from the shrines, and I must admit Malachite is sneaking into my list of favorite gemstones; I mean, look at those colors!

With more time than I knew what to do with, I ended up visiting both a zoo on an aquarium (on different days). But since I don’t want to fill my entire cloud storage with pictures of beautiful animals, I only include some of the great pictures of the show at the aquarium. This wasn’t planned but randomly encountered, like when I went to Kyoto. So as unlucky as I am with the main attractions being under restoration, I apparently am lucky regarding animal shows.

So my verdict of Sendai. It’s most certainly another experience than Tokyo, but considering its size, it felt very lackluster. Even when looking for attractions and things to do, there wasn’t a lot that showed up, and certainly not something that takes a lot of time to visit. The food was absolutely delicious, with nice cuts of beef, the Gyutan, black ramen, and Zunda. Most of the places were expensive, and they had very few low-cost “I just need to find something to eat” kinds of restaurants. Most were medium towards higher class meals with a cost to match.