April Adventures Across Japan Phase 2: Train Tracks to The North

The JR pass is a glorious things for visitors to Japan. Any time you ride on the JR line, albeit regular train or bullet train, you are covered. It is not available for residents of Japan... even temporary ones such as myself. So I picked up a smaller version of it, which would cover 5 days worth of rides on JR lines, but not the shinkansen, only regular trains. So, we slow train-ed it up north, and since we couldn't make it all the way up to Aomori in one day this way, we stopped in Sendai for the night.


Once again, we grabbed mixed bags of baked goods from the nearby bakery and set off to spend the day riding the rails. It was a nice change of pace to not spend the day walking, and we both lost ourselves reading books while the kilometers clicked by, occasionally having to change lines or watching the scenery change from the urban jungle to quiet inaka (country side).

It was overcast when we arrived in Sendai, and a cool breeze reminded us that spring had not-quite-sprung this far north. We were prepared and set off to seek our our accommodations for the evening at the Miyagi Guest House, just a short walk from Sendai Station.

Our little hidey-hole for the night. Cozy!

Megumi, who I believe is from Sendai, or at least used to live there before getting a job in Tokyo, told us to check out the different restaurants in the station for the local delicacy of cow tongue (which I had before... it's strangely chewy...) and a variety of sushi restaurants. We opted for Kakisen Ubudo (かき鮮 海風土), split a platter and then ordered a few more to get our fill. Delicious and so fresh. Yum yum yummy!

Sated and not wanting to venture back out into the rain, we opted for a wee bit of shopping.



As seems to be the usual custom with large train stations, there were a number of towers and shops near by in which to peruse. We found a boss Wolverine hoodie, but it was a tad too expensive for our tastes. I liked the open air sky-walk that attached the station to a number of the buildings, even in the rain. It reduced the number of times I had to get splashed by traffic.

Sadly, though, due to the rain fall, we did not go in search of cherry blossoms at the near by park. The head colds we got while in Tokyo were still lingering, and we thought it best not to push our luck.