Sendai, Matsushima, JAF

Back in June, I had to get my California driver's license translated into Japanese. This is one of the steps required to get a foreign license "converted" to a Japanese license. If you happen to want to know more about this process, please take a look at JAF's guide here.

My rollerskate car - isn't it cute?

The JAF office in Aomori City no longer provides the translation service, so I decided to take advantage of a Monday substitute holiday and go to the JAF office in Sendai. I mean, I could have mailed my application to Sendai and waited a few weeks to get it back, but I was looking for an excuse to go to Sendai anyhow. I've wanted to visit ever since I first heard the announcement for Sendai on the Tohoku Shinkansen, an ode to glorious sibilance which I would impishly title Mamonaku, Sendai:

Mamonaku Sendai
Senseki Sen
Senzan Sen
Jouban Sen
Senseki Tohoku Sen
Sendaikuko Access Sen
Sendai Hie chikatetsu
Nanboku Sen
Touzai Sen
...

On Saturday I took an early train from Aomori to Sendai, dumped my backpack in a locker at Sendai Station, and transferred to a train on the Senseki Line headed to Matsushima.

Matsushima is a coastal town about 25km northeast of Sendai, most famous for Matsushima Bay, one of the "Three Views of Japan." There are also several culturally significant temples and a tea house from the time of the Date clan, who ruled in Sendai from 1600-1868, as well as lots of tourist shops and pine trees (the "matsu" in Matsushima). The famous haiku poet Matsuo Basho passed through Matsushima on his journey north to Hiraizumi in 1689, and he wrote about it in his master work Oku no Hosomichi (The narrow road to the deep north).

I got off the train and shuffled along behind a crowd of slow-moving day-trippers. I had decided to first go to Fukuura Island, which is reached by a toll footbridge. I hadn't counted on being trapped in a narrow sidewalk, unable to cross to the more attractive side of the road to walk along the water's edge, and unable to get past the crowd without literally knocking someone over. When I did finally manage to cross the road to the ticket office in front of the boat launch, I was immediately surrounded by a tour group of college kids who scrambled to take selfie-stick pictures of themselves and their group with the water in the background, while loudly declaring such profundities as "Uo, umi, sugoi ne" (whoa, the sea) and "Sugoi, kirei ne" (whoa, pretty).

The waterfront path turned out to be blocked off by fences, so I walked through the tour bus parking lot, where I was treated to the sight of several red-faced middle-aged men clutching beer cans, stumbling off a tour bus and directly into the public toilet (at 11am). One more parking lot later I found the toll bridge, and walked out to Fukuura Island.

The Toll Bridge to Fukuura Island

A shrine (name unknown) on Fukuura Island

The pine islands that give Matsushima its name

Date Masamune's favorite island- somehow I don't think that's the same tree from 1600 though

The toll bridge back from Fukuura Island

After crossing back from the island, I made my way to Zuiganji, a famous Rinzai Zen Buddhist temple rebuilt by Date Masamune in 1604. The recently-restored main hall is full of national treasures and cultural assets, and so of course no photos are allowed inside, but it looked exactly like these photos from the temple website. (the website is in Japanese; scroll down to see the interior shots.) The main hall was extensively damaged in the 2011 Tohoku Earthquake, and I believe the restoration project was to repair that damage, although I don't have any idea of the state of the main hall before the quake. I stopped to admire some posters on a construction fence, showing the restoration work and the craftspeople involved.

The special entrance only for the daimyo and the Emperor

The Hondo (main hall)

The kitchen

A statue of one of the abbots of Zuiganji... maybe

Let's look at the restoration drawings of Zuiganji!

Craftspeople who worked on the restoration of Zuiganji

Various design elements of Zuiganji

Next door to Zuiganji is Entsuin, a Buddhist temple built in 1646 to house the mausoleum of Date Mitsumune, Masamune's grandson who died at the age of 19 while staying as a "guest" of the Shogun in Edo.

About Entsuin, I read a few things: You can make a buddhist rosary bracelet there, and a monk will explain to you the meanings of the different stones you choose (in Japanese only). The grounds are very pretty. There is a rose garden. I mainly went to Matsushima to see the islands and Zuigan-ji, and I figured I'd go to Entsuin since it's just next door, but as it turns out, I was enchanted by it.

The lovely green grounds of Entsuin

Firstly, the approach to the mausoleum was green on green on green, with puddles of sunlight dropping through the branches onto the mossy ground and pathway. The mausoleum itself had a secluded and melancholy feeling despite the clear blue sky overhead. There were bees buzzing around the bushes behind the small building. One brushed the back of my neck.

Steps up to the mausoleum at Entsuin

Mausoleum at Entsuin

Behind the mausoleum at Entsuin

Scooting quickly away from the bees, I walked down a gentle slope in the trees, and the rose garden suddenly came into view. It hadn't occurred to me that since it was early June, the roses would be in full bloom. The bushes were covered in a rainbow of gorgeous roses, including a shade of violet-blue I haven't seen before.

The rose garden at Entsuin.

Purple roses at Entsuin

Pine, bamboo, Japanese maple, roses

I would have liked to spend the rest of the day dawdling in the roses, taking pictures and stopping to smell each flower, but eventually I had to move on. On my way back to the train station, I detoured up some steps and across three open-slat footbridges to see Godai-do Temple.

Entsuin's main hall, originally Date Mitsumine's summer residence, relocated here.

Temple grounds near the main hall

Three footbridges to Godai-do Temple

Weatherbeaten Godai-do Temple

The next day, Sunday, I left my hotel near Sendai Station and took the tourist loop bus around to Zuihoden, the (recontructed) Momoyama Style mausoleum of Date Masamune, great head of the Date Clan.

Some facts about Date Masamune:

• lost his right eye in childhood
• nicknamed "Dokuganryuu" (The One-Eyed Dragon)
• wore a battle helmet with a giant crescent moon
• leader of his clan from the age of 17, in 1584
• kept Toyotomi Hideyoshi and Tokugawa Ieyasu at a gutsy arm's length
• established and enlarged the city of Sendai, and ruled the largest domain in the North
• sent an envoy to the Pope in Rome in 1613 (most likely seeking western arms and technology)
• funded the first Japanese expedition to sail to the New World
• generally considered a legendary badass

Zuihoden is located in a stand of pines up a lot of steps

Climbing up to Zuihoden

Reconstructed Momoyama Style mausoleum

Nearby is Kansenden, reconstructed mausoleum for Date Tadamune, 2nd daimyo of the Sendai Domain     

Wandering in the shade of the pines on a hot day

After leaving the shade of the pine grove on the hill, I stopped at a little sweets shop to try one of Sendai's specialties. Zunda is a sweet bean paste made from edamame (soy beans).

Cute little sweets shop next to Zuihoden 

Vanilla mochi ice cream with zunda topping. So good.

I got back on the loop bus, planning to ride until Osaki Hachimangu Shrine, but the friendly lady who sat next to me strongly encouraged me to check out the Sendai Castle site.

I feel like there should be a castle on top of that wall

Drawings of Aoba Castle, of which only the foundation remains

View of downtown Sendai from the Aoba Castle site

Date Masamune and his crescent moon helmet

I didn't stay too long since 1) the castle isn't there anymore and 2) the sun was intense and there was no shade and 3) the museum at the top of the hill had no English signage. I got back on the loop bus and went on to the shrine...

Osaki Hachimangu Shrine, with a concert taking place literally inside the sanctuary

...where it turned out there was a multi-stage rock music festival taking place, in every corner of the grounds, including right inside the main sanctuary itself. I don't go to shrines for rock music festivals, so I was pretty uninterested. I took a few pictures, listened to one song from the performer on the main stage, stopped to eat a couple yakitori skewers, and headed back out to the bus stop again.

Next I stopped at the Sendai Mediatheque, where there was also a music festival going on, in the multipurpose space on the main floor. I'm not sure if the two music festivals were part of some larger city-wide event, but the one at the Mediatheque was an event for children with special needs. I watched a very young deaf girl play a recorder arrangement with her teacher accompanying her on violin. Then I went upstairs.

The Sendai Mediatheque is a multipurpose space that includes a public library; gallery, cinema and performance space; collaborative studio space, a service desk for people with visual and/or hearing impairments; office space; and a cafe/bar/gift shop. It was designed by Japanese architect Toyo Ito, who used a visually arresting "vertical tube" structural system, and it was completed in 2001. The building was considerably damaged by the Tohoku Earthquake in 2011 and remained partially closed for almost a year afterwards. Now it houses the grassroots archiving project "center for remembering 3.11" in the library on the 3rd Floor, which was one of the reasons I wanted to go there. I wandered all over the building looking for the little cart, which was surprisingly hard to find.

Double curtain wall with glass fins and fritting on the 5th or 6th floor

Looking down one of the larger vertical tubes that happens to contain an exit stair

Somehow, the wired glass enclosure and fire extinguisher kind of detract from the aesthetic...

Channel glass wall in the women's restroom, up against a kind of uninspiring underlayer...
that's an expensive wall that few folks are going to see!

On Monday I checked out of my hotel, put my bag in another locker at the station, and took a taxi to the JAF office about twenty minutes' drive east of the station. Once I got there, it was a fairly painless, if boring, hour or so to get the translation done. I got directions to the nearest subway station from the staff, and found myself back at Sendai Station before noon.

Sendai's other specialty, Gyuutan (beef tongue) and oxtail soup lunch at the station

I had some extra time, so I decided to try to visit Osaki Hachimangu Shrine again. I took the regular city bus out there. Luckily, the music festival was over and the stages had all been removed.

Osaki Hachimangu was built, or rebuilt, by (wait for it) Date Masamune between 1603-1607. I don't quite follow the details, but it seems that the current Osaki Hachimangu enshrines both the Hachiman deity of the extinct Osaki clan, and the Hachiman deity venerated by past generations of the Date clan. Either way, it seems that Hachiman is the guardian of warrior families, and of the Sendai region.

The first gate to Osaki Hachimangu

Second gate on the way up to the shrine

The third gate, at the top of some steep steps

This guy and his friend will greet you after the third gate

The Shaden (main shrine building), a designated national treasure

Not sure what this building is at Osaki Hachimangu, but it's surrounded by omikuji and ema

After all that, I killed some time in the English language section of a bookstore near Sendai Station, bought as much omiyage as I could carry, and took my train back to Aomori.

I enjoyed my visit to Sendai and Matsushima, and I can't wait to go back!

More pictures in the Flickr album.