Tohoku and Sendai

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4 years ago I stayed during a month in the Kansai region and now I'm spending a year in Sendai, Miyagi prefecture, in the Tohoku region of Japan. These months I've been able to travel many places and meet a lot of people. I've tried and experienced new things like onsen (hot springs), hanami (cherry blossom viewing), living in a tatami room and sleeping in the floor, earthquakes, huge insects, different food, etc.

The city I've been living in is Sendai, the main city of Miyagi prefecture. It is a middle sized city with a center (next the train station) and a few main shopping streets. Although it is a bit far from the sea, it has a river: the Hirosegawa.

Actually, Sendai was the place where a really cool samurai lived: Date Masamune. This guy had the guts to do more or less what he wanted (and survive) despite of the great power of the Tokugawa shogunate. But most of all, he was very intelligent. Anyway, D.M. was the one that sent the first japanese non-official embassy on a tour to Mexico, Spain and Italy. He was also the one sending christian japanese to Spain in order to save their lives after the shogunate crucified the christians in Nagasaki and banned christianism from Japan. Some of these survivors in Spain still have the family name "Japón", which simply means Japan. Sendai has this cool history, but unfortunately there is no more castle... only ruins... I hope that one day they can rebuild the castle again (that would really be a boost for tourism and culture).

Tohoku region is a beautiful green land completely different from the places I was before: Tokyo and Kansai area. It gets pretty cold in winter and summer is hot, thought there is always a lot of wind coming from the mountains.

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Comments

[Ake Och Emma]

Nice photo
I pick this photo from your blog both as my favourite. Very nice with both the spring colours and the water. The title says Fukushima, is it taken near the very Fukushima that I know about? /Ake

[Toya]

It's in the Fukushima region, the Hanamiyama park (I think). But it's not close to the nuclear plant (actually the nuclear plant close to Futaba, near the sea).