JapanNewbie

Sendai…

Posted on 24. Mar, 2003 @ 11:51 pm by harvey in Culture Views: 81

Last weekend I took a short trip up to Sendai.

I made the mistake of traveling during ‘ohigan?’, I had never heard of this holiday before. It is the time when everyone returns to their hometown to do ‘ohaka maeri’, where you go around and visit the graves of your family members and such. Lots of people leave from Tokyo at this time. The Shinkansen was packed, I had to stand for 2-3 hours all the way to Sendai. Ouch.

The trip was normal and everything, the usual gyuu-tan (cow tounge) and sight seeing that people tend to do when they go to Sendai, but one thing surprised me.

In a small, small trainstation in north Sendai, the station was getting ready to protect itself against terrorism…

I find that quite odd. I mean. Come on, it’s Sendai. What could possibly happen up there? Ah well.

There is also a bus in Sendai for tourists that runs around the whole city every 30 minutes from morning until 4pm. Very convenient.

Too bad it’s packed like a mother at all hours of the day…

I stayed at a youth hostel called Douchuan. Great place. mdchachi mentioned it to me a while back, highly recommended! When you get to Sendai the information booth in the train station will know it by name.