The day started with what can only be described as a character-building experience: Aimi driving us down the mountain from Zao Onsen towards Shibata. Now, I trust my wife with many things in life, but hurtling down narrow mountain roads with sheer drops and enthusiastic cornering is… an experience. I spent most of the journey alternating between admiring the scenery and mentally preparing my will. This little K-car is not built for mountain roads, or enthusiastic Europeans.
We arrived at a sort of flowery hill park built where a castle used to stand. I wanted to come here because flanking the river below are rows of cherry trees.
Unfortunately, we are 3–4 weeks too late. The majority of cherry blossom has passed, which was mildly disappointing, but in its place were loads of other flowers doing their absolute best to fill the gap. Bright colours everywhere, nicely kept paths, and a white Buddha statue standing vigil at the top overlooking a beautiful view. It was still worth the trip.
Not content with one Buddha on top of a hill, we drove into Sendai to find a giant Dai Kannon on the hill. This one is MASSIVE. Standing over 12 floors tall, the locals don’t like it towering over them. Maybe because their deity is no longer only metaphorically looking over their shoulders.
Inside there is one huge spiral staircase with landings around the lift shaft where there are located lots of identical wooden cases, each containing a Buddha statue. 108 in total. There are ones with many faces, many arms, many legs, sitting on one elephant, sitting on three elephants, sitting on a lion, standing on a lion, standing on a person, with a sword, a lute, an axe, a flower, a tree… every conceivable DnD character was present. These are some of my favourites:
I have to admit, we did not stay long. There was no heating, so it was like a huge concrete fridge in there, and the view was only out of really tiny windows at the top. We should have done as the Google reviews said and just taken the photo from the bottom and left. At least it’s been painted again since the Google photos.
Arriving in the centre of Sendai, we strolled aimlessly down the main shopping street called Clis Road. It’s been covered over with an arched roof so weather doesn’t stop the commerce from continuing. It’s a great idea and means you can walk nearly the width of the city to and from the main station without ever getting wet.
Here we finally ticked one of my boxes when we found a takoyaki restaurant. We literally only stopped for a bite, but they are like little balls of lava, so we had a drink while waiting for them to cool down. I also started messing around and honking a random rubber chicken that was on the table. This, apparently, came with consequences, as there was some kind of tequila punishment attached to it. I very nearly had to down a shot for my curiosity, but managed to avoid it through what I can only describe as strategic ignorance.
A bit of shopping later to buy essentials like Shiba Inu stickers and a Pikachu in a kimono, and we went in search of a restaurant that serves beef tongue. In the UK, you don’t associate the train station as bastions of fine dining, but here they are the epicentre of the cities. They all have shopping centres built around them with multiple floors of restaurants. The other noticeable feature—or lack thereof—are windows. There aren’t any windows, basically none. It’s really alien to be walking around a huge building and never getting to see outside. For some reason, this makes it hard to navigate, and we ended up going from the 3rd floor to the basement twice in search of this restaurant.
There were loads to choose from, but the sticker shop guy had recommended one in particular. But after struggling to find it, we eventually gave up and picked one at random. As luck would have it, it turned out to be the right one, so we got to try beef tongue. Aimi thought it was tasty but a bit chewy. I liked it—good BBQ food. They also gave us a green blob that gave Aimi flashbacks to the gelatinous rice ball thing. She choked it down and said it wasn’t that, but was too similar to enjoy.
The last stop—or so we thought—was the edamame bean milkshake shop. Again, in the train station, this was the reputed place to go. I was sceptical of a bean milkshake, as their fascination with red bean paste doesn’t translate to our European palates. But this was actually really good. Imagine a vanilla smoothie with tiny lumps of beans and a hint of fresh greenery to the taste. Strange, but enjoyable. I would have it again if I saw it.
On the way back to the car, we happened to find (what we call) the Donkey shop, but it’s actually called Don Quijote. A huge building with six floors of random stuff, again no windows, selling everything from makeup to electronics to packaged food to anime. Again, we managed to find vibrators next to adult fancy dress next to kids’ fancy dress, and as a Japanese couple came around the corner, I found myself going very British about getting lost in the shop. They just giggled.
After struggling with the parking meter, we drove back to Zao Onsen. Here I ate the salad I had been craving in the hotel room with my fingers. Only the next day did I find at the bottom of my bag the fork I was given.