sendai-osaka

Sendai has great loop bus called Loople.

For 620 yen, you can get on and off at various stops along their route and it runs about every 20 minutes depending on traffic.

We first got off to see Zuihoden, the resting place for the first feudal lord of Sendai, Date Masamune and his family.

Um, the day before there was a bear sighting in the area...gulp!

And then we visited the Sendai Castle Ruins, where there is a huge statue of Date Masamune.

We also visited the Osaki Hachimangu, designated as a national treasure, this shrine was built by Date Masamune and covered with dark black urushi (lacquer) and vibrant colored carvings.

These 98 stairs were nothing compared to the 700-something we climbed a couple of weeks ago.

Once back in Sendai, we enjoyed the lush green streets.

And then it was time to head back to Osaka.

The Sendai Airport was also badly damaged with the tsunami.

To give you an idea of how high the water was, you can see where they marked it (with a blue arrow) on a pole, and compare it with Satoshi's height (5'7" (170cm)).

This adventure was an eye opening experience and we were glad we made the trip.

I hope we can visit other Tohoku prefectures in the future.

I'll post some of our omiyage in another post and I hope you enjoyed this adventure as much as we did.