Advertisement
Published: September 23rd 2013
Edit Blog Post
Sendai is where alot of the Tsunami happened after the earthquakes. We did not see much evidence of this. Cracks in buildings mostly , but you would have to look for them.The resilience and attitude of the people in Japan is amazing. Cleanlyness is der rigor as well. Washing the store fronts, streets, the bathrooms are spotless and everywhere.
We had to eat cow tongue. Its everywhere. Cows have no moos here and I know why! Everyone eats their tongues. I am speechless. The tongues were sliced thin as if shaven. You could have them in a bowl with rice and sauce or in a ball shaped, dipped in batter. What happens to the rest of the cow?
They also have ox tongue which we never found. Curious , that curry is also popular.
In Sendai, our hotel was a 5 minute walk from the train station, so it was "easy peasy"as they say. That first night we walked the market area and discovered a huge electronic shop. It had everything but what I needed! You would think the camera section was big but you would be wrong. Cell phone area however , was quite large. I was
looking for a battery pack for the 4S Iphone but because it was an out dated phone they no longer carried them. Oh well, Charging more frequently is what I will have to do. It was weird as well seeing all the control buttons on the appliances in Japanese. Whats a guy to do if i lived here? As well, now I know what it is like to be illiterate.
BTW: All the coffee you can drink in this hotel. Highly recommended. Its called the Richmond. Yum Yum.
Next day we took an excursion to Matsushima in Sendai Bay. After we arrived we paid a pedestrian toll for a foot bridge to cross over to an Island in the Bay. Nothing special except quietude and paths and a beach or two that you can walk on.
We decided afterwards to go eat oysters and that is what we did! They were so tasty. They were huge. WE had three each. They were steamed just right.
Next we took a boat into the bay. On the boat we decided to climb upto the top deck. There we had a birds eye view of the surroundings. Some people
were attracting seagulls with food, and as a result the sea gulls were face to face nibbling out of the hand of the feeders while in flight.
We were asked to pay 300Yen to stay on the top deck. We refused! We already paid 1400 Yen each for the tour. WE went below to the next deck and were told that we could only be on the bottom deck! Rippoff!!! Argh. The bay reminded us of Vietnams Halong Bay with the islands dotting the scenery. The boat tour lasted about an hour and landed us in another town where we were able to get on another train and head back to Sendai for the evening.
Next day was a transit day. We headed towards the North into the Akita Prefecture. This is a spa, ski resort area. Our Ryokan has sulphur baths private, male or female. Choice was ours. Hmmmm... I think private.
Our ryokan is nestled against a hillside deep in the woods and is somewhat rustic with some roofs made of straw like what we experienced on our last trip here. Supper was a feasty affair with a fire pit. In the pit on sticks
were 2 fish skewered as if they cooked there. We also had a rod hanging from the ceiling that supports a pot of soup. We had it all. We ate and ate and ate. "Burp"Thats supposed to be polite telling our hosts that we were well content with the meal.
We got up to another feast in the fire pit at 7:30 AM. We were full for the day. We decided to spend the day walking around the area we were in as well as "spa-ing"lol. Thats the lingo I came up with. On our walk we hit some boardwalks, water rapids, and nature. It finally felt like I was on vacation.
Supper was at the "fire pit" again. No shortage of eats thats for sure. Eat , sleep, eat , spa, walk, eat, spa etc......
Advertisement
Tot: 0.377s; Tpl: 0.013s; cc: 13; qc: 83; dbt: 0.1021s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 2;
; mem: 1.2mb
Blaine
non-member comment
Moo-Moo
I didn't realize that cow tongue was so popular there! Believe it or not it's very popular here in SoCal, too!