Zuihoden

While in Sendai we visited Zuihoden, the mausoleum of the first feudal lord of Sendai. The first lord of Sendai, Date Masamune, was born in 1567. He conquered much of the Sendai area and brought it under his rule. He had a huge income but only one eye (he wore a patch, making him look like a pirate samurai.)

In the Zuihoden surrounds there are momuments to 11 feudal lords in the Date lineage. They ruled over Sendai for a long time.

Old stone lanterns in the grounds of the mausoleum.

Ornate and colourful details on the Zuihoden in the Momoyama architectural style.

Zuihoden built for Date Masamune who was only 159cm tall therefore I am taller than he was.

Kansenden, built for date Tadamune, the Second Feudal Lord of Sendai (unfortunately 2cm taller than me). Also unfortunate that it is a replica as the original was burnt down during WW2.

Totally unrelated to Zuihoden, the region speciality of Sendai is zunda mochi – rice flour sweet balls with sweetened edamame (soybean) paste.

Eat more greens

On our way home from Sendai we had dinner with Benno’s friend in Tokyo at Eat More Greens.

Tofu and mikan risotto

Rich chocolate tart with jam and soy cream.

Hommus and pita

Burdock curry dish

Nokogiri-yama return

Today we returned to Nokogiri-yama.

Sendai Winter Illuminations

In December Sendai hosts some beautiful winter illuminations during their ‘Pageant of Starlight’ festival. We caught the Loople Sightseeing bus to the main street with lights and walked down the avenue of lit up trees. It was pretty cold so we stopped off at MOS burger and had some fries to warm up.

Earlier in the day we had lunch at Ohisamaya, a vegan organic cafe near the station.

For dinner we stopped off at Soup Stock Tokyo, a soup/curry shop in Sendai station. We had rice with minestrone – it was a vegan soup although not all of their items are vegan-friendly and they rotate their menu often.

Matsushima- scenic sights of Japan

The three scenic sites of Japan a.k.a. “Nihon Sankei”:

1. Matsushima, the pine covered islands near Sendai.

2. Miyajima, an island with floating shrine near Hiroshima.

3. Amanohashidate, a sand bar covered in pine trees in northern Kyoto prefecture.

We have now visited 2 of these scenic sites. We caught the train from Sendai to Matsushima and went on a 50min cruise around the bay. It was rather quiet for a Sunday morning (there was only one other couple on the boat) and the tour guide kept trying to say things in English for us (except she had to check all the words with the other Japanese couple before saying it to us).

We had reserved our tickets online and got 10% off the cruise. See http://www.marubun-kisen.com/english/matsushima/basho.html

It was lovely weather – blue skies and sun shining. We walked around Matsushima after the cruise and wandered on some of the islands that were accessible by bridge from the mainland. Then we hopped back on the onigiri-samurai-trainline to Sendai.

One of the 260 pine-covered islands of Matsushima.

Pine islands in the blue seas and blue skies of Matsushima.

The trees seem to be growing straight out of the rocks…

Bell island – the sound of the waves hitting the arches makes a bell sound.

A small wooden shrine on an island reached by a small bridge.

Benno and Matsushima Bay.

Windswept Lara by Matsushima Bay.

Christmas lunch

Christmas wasn’t quite the same this year… it was a normal workday for most of Japan, and it was just the two of us for Christmas lunch.

Still, we had cashew nut loaf with roast sweet potato and hassleback potatoes, gravy and broccoli with “cheesy sauce” followed by mini pumpkin pies with strawberries and maple syrup.

mini pumpkin pies with strawberries and maple syrup.

Cashew nut loaf.

Hassleback potatoes.

Gingerbread biscuits.

Week of quakes

Recently we’ve had lots of little tremors. The longest earthquake I’ve ever felt (although not very strong) came this morning while I was still in bed. We also had one late at night while sitting on the couch that felt like rolling waves underneath us. Fortunately, none of the earthquakes have been stronger than 2 in magnitude by the time they reach us. It’s easy to see how you could be lulled into a false sense of security with all these tiny quakes, forgetting that sometimes huge earthquakes hit Japan and destroy houses and lives.

Later this morning another quake hit and its effects were felt all the way along the eastern edge of Japan – from Chiba-ken up to the top of Hokkaido.

This week I’ve been busy preparing foods for Christmas day luch. The day after Christmas we head off to Sendai to view the Winter Illuminations and one of the 3 scenic sites, Matsushima. After New Years we travel to Hakuba to go skiing for the first time and visit the famous snow monkeys.

Fuji-san at 6.45 in the morning

Today was the last day of term 2 exams and the last day of school for students. As I was eating breakfast I saw Fuji-san from the dining room window and so walked up to the carpark below the buddhist temple near us and took some photos. The sun was just rising in the east and the sky still had a pink tinge to it. Mt Fuji was very clear and it was very cold that early in the morning! Since the forecast for today was 7 degrees, I’m guessing it was something like 4 degrees when I took these photos.

By lunchtime he had disappeared under cloud and the sky was no longer crisp and clear. But after lunch was also the start of yuki-yasumi so it’s a happy day!

Mt Fuji from Kisarazu.

Mt Fuji in the dusty pink skies of sunrise.

Winter Lights in Harajuku

Dango!

Dango!