松島 Matsushima

The main reason for heading to Sendai was to get a small taste of the region to the North of Tokyo (there be pine trees here) and see Matsushima bay. That's the Pacific Ocean you're seeing, and at similar latitudes to California, only 5000 miles away. The area is about 30 minutes by train outside of Sendai and it's small enough that you can walk from the station and see the entire area. The bay is made up of hundreds of tiny islands though only two sizable ones are accessible via bridges from the mainland. The smaller one, Oshima had some really cool Buddhist ruins/carvings, most of which are being left to the elements. Many of the carved stone tablets or sculptures are almost worn smooth.

It was nice to note, however, that even this area is not immune to Hello Kitty. To the lower right of the worn statue there was a bunch of incense and a Hello Kitty pouch (maybe to hold matches?).

仙台 Sendai

A little over 900km (550+ miles) away from Osaka is Sendai. Yesterday, even the Shinkansen can fail and due to some >20 minute delays around Tokyo I missed a connector train. The normal connection time seems to be 6-15 minutes. Thankfully they got me booked on a train that left only a few minutes after I managed to get the ticket. Not counting the delay time this train was only a bit slower than the one I should have been on. It also separated into two trains partway through the trip so you had to be sure you were in the half you needed to be in (and you could not pass between them from inside).

Sendai station has multiple levels filled with おみやげ　shops and restaurants, even a grocery store. A good number of the restaurants served the local specialty, 牛タン, grilled cow tongue. There were over 75 taxis waiting outside in the evening but few people seem to use them. Also, the pillow at the hotel came with an instruction sheet which was kind of scary. They do provide wired and 64bit WEP wireless and a really good breakfast buffet though.