Sendai Weekend

This weekend I ventured to the north of Japan for the first time and let me say it was pretty great! It was kind of an emotional roller coaster but I'll get to that later. I started with a very early train to Tokyo to  catch an 7:45 shinkansen. I am NEVER going to get tired of taking the shinkansen. The best way to travel across the country is by a comfortable bullet train. I also spent a bit more money this weekend and took the fastest and most comfortable of the shinkansens. It was so cushy and smooth! There was a whole car that was just comfy coaches and tables called the conductors car. It was well worth the extra cash.

Once I arrived, my friend took me to her place. I dropped my stuff off and we hung at her mall until her freind could pick us up. Her mall was awesome fun! It was made to resemble an American style mall. In fact, it was even called The Mall. It was fun to stroll through and see all of the fun boutiques.

Her Japanese friend, Kazuto, came and picked us up to show me around Sendai. First on the list was to stop at a traditional Japanese hot spring called an onsen. I have been to an onsen before but this was my friend's first time. It's kind of an intimidating experience the first time.  There are some rules that you need to follow. It's also super intimidating for most people because you have to go in naked. The girls are separated from the guys so it's not as awkward as it could be but it is still a little unnerving for most foreigners. It is a fantastic experience though! The hot springs are so relaxing especially if they are natural and outdoors. We did an outdoor one despite the fact that it was 3 degrees outside. I was told that was the best time to go to an outdoor onsen and they were right! The water temperature combined with the air temperature just made for a perfect mix. If the water got too hot, which it frequently does, you need only step out for a minute before plunging back in. Everyone at the onsen is so friendly too. We had a couple of people smiling at us and trying to help us out. There was even a lady who spoke some English to us! Great experience!

After the onsen, we headed over to the site of Sendai castle. The castle was destroyed many years ago but there is a great shrine, statue, and view to to see there.

Sendai city

The lord of the castle

The beautifuk shrine and Kazuto!

 After our stroll through the castle grounds, we hopped back into Kazuto's car. He asked us where we wanted to go next. We both just shrugged. He then said that he wanted to take us out to a tsunami affected zone. We both agreed wanting to witness first hand some of the damage caused by the March 11th earthquake and tsunami.
We pulled up and the who area was just desolate. It was an amazing, heartbreaking, and emotional experience. I need to write a whole new post for you all just on that. For now, here are some photos I took from the area.

A shrine to remember those who died or are still considered missing

We headed back to my friends place after that and hit the sack right away since we were both pretty drained from the day.
The next day, we woke up to snow! I was very excited at first and then remembered that I had to walk through it all. Gross. Fun and odd fact, Japanese people use umbrellas here when it is snowing. Very puzzing to me.

Seriously, I don't understand...

We headed off to Matsushima which supposedly has one of the third most scenic view in Japan. It was very beautiful! I'm sure it would have been more beautiful if it wasn't 1 degree and raining though. We actually hopped on the wrong train at first. We started walking towards the main area of town. We made it about 5 mins before we turned around and headed back to the station to just take a taxi. It really was miserable out! The cab driver dropped us off and we were off to see the islands and the view! The most interesting thing was that the closer islands were actually connected by footbridge to the mainland. Although we highly doubted the safety of some of these bridges...

Oh hey there slippery 2X4s, why are you the only thing between me and the ocean?

But it was worth it

The longest bridge. Took us a good 5-7 minutes to cross at 252 meters

Some of the view

Random temple!

After a couple hours, my friend and I were soaked through and FREEZING! I had noticed about halfway through our journey that my umbrella was somehow broken and leaking just a little bit of the freezing rain right on top of my head. But, I couldn't put up my hood as some snow fell straight from a tree into my hood. Luckily, the large bridge was attached to a café. We stopped in for some hot chocolate and french fries with a great view!

Warmth and food?!?! Win!

We headed back to her place, grabbed dinner and I went back on the shinkansen for the three and a half hour journey home. I also brought back with me a fantastic cold that has just wiped me out all week. Curse you not waterproof boots and leaky umbrella! It was well worth it though.