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Since arriving in Japan, my younger brother and I have gone sightseeing once a year on the mainland. He paid for a year of Japanese classes at a local college prior to my coming here, and in return I plan and plot the trips, functioning as a sort of Japanese speaking tour guide. We’d already done the more well-trodden paths of Tokyo, Kyoto and Osaka sightseeing in 2008 and I decided that 2009was the year to do something I’d missed out one since I didn’t get my desired placement in Miyagi-ken. So, we headed to Sendai for tanabata matsuri.

Celebrated all over Japan in July, Sendai’s tanabata festival takes place from August 6-8^th.  One can fly into Sendai direct from Okinawa. Sendai is also just a 1 ½ hour train ride from Tokyo by the shinkansen on the Tohoku line, so it can be easily tacked on to a Tokyo excursion. This was the route we took.

Advance reservations for the train from Tokyo are not needed even during festival season, you can usually get a ticket on the same day as your departure. One way to Sendai from Tokyo runs about 12,000yen. Trains leave almost every hour. The one thing you do need to do a month or two early is make hotel reservations. Sendai has many hotels within walking distance of the station (train and bus access) and the arcades, but it does not have many budget accommodations. Rates are set at premium particularly for the 6^th-8^th of August.

As a small-ish Japanese city with a population roughly the size of Okinawa and off the beaten international tourist path, don’t expect a lot of help in English while in Sendai. Unlike in Tokyo, Kyoto and Okinawa, we found that hotel desk clerks may not be able to communicate fluently in English, and restaurants probably do not have English menus available. I actually found it refreshing to have to spend 3 full days speaking nothing but nihongo (aside from talking to my brother).

We actually arrived one day early for the festival. From the minute we arrived, Sendai did not disappoint. When we first walked into the station we were greeted by the giant crepe paper constructions of kusudama and fukinagashi (ball and streamers).

The main feature of Tanabata Matsuri are the decorations. They are concentrated in Sendai eki (station) and the two pedestrian arcades on the west side of the station, the Chuo-dori and the Ichibancho. The Ichibancho and its surrounding streets are also the main entertainment areas, so keep this in mind when looking for restaurants. These arcades are still lively and vibrant shopping areas unlike many in the country that have fallen into abandonment and disrepair. I highly recommend coming a day early for the festival, like we did, if you want to take pictures, as the arcades get very crowded and it’s hard to take good pictures without too many people in the way. We also visited Sapporo and Tokyo this trip but I think we took more pictures in Sendai than anywhere else.

Each shop or business sponsors its own decorations hung outside the store from bamboo or pseudo-bamboo poles. Local companies also sponsor these decorations filling the streets with a fun and colorful explosion of crepe paper. The decorations range in style from the obviously commercial kirin beer cans to the artistic. Fukinagashi made entirely of folded origami, or kusudama we saw that were in the shape of kokeshi dolls (a regional specialty). The decorations range in height from 4-6 meters and are often hung quite low so that you literally can’t see where you’re going on the arcades. The decorations are bagged up every night for protection from vandals and the weather around 9pm, so if you want nighttime photos, best to go early, as we found out. Also, if it rains heavily, the decorations that are not protected by the arcades or hung indoors will stay bagged all day.

The opening night of the festival, on August 5^th, there were fireworks over the river. Following the flood of people from the station, it was a 30 minute walk past the shops and a lot of street vendors selling Japanese style-finger food like dango and yakitori.

Sendai is a city built around its river. One of the few in a Japanese urban area that has not been coerced into an incredibly artificial channel, the river is allowed to meander relatively naturally, and parks grow along its banks giving Sendai its nickname “city of trees”. If you think fireworks are nice, Sendai’s tanabata festival opened with a real bang, 1 ½ hours of nearly continuous state-of-the-art hanabi. It seemed like the entire population under the age of 30 had donned yukata and camped out on the riverbanks to welcome the opening of the festival.

Two nights later the entertainment was a ‘parade’. Not really a parade, more of a street show, along one of the intersections on the Ichibancho. Various performing groups arranged themselves along a park meridian in the middle of the street and did rotating short performances so that everybody could see.  The performers were scheduled by type. When we got there the action was already underway. There was an acrobatics set, a marching band set, folk-dancing, a ballet performance of the story behind tanabata (the ‘starry’ romance of Orohime and Hikoboshi) and finally a rousing taiko finale.

Because of our travel schedule we left before the final day of the tanabata matsuri, but we had a great time and highly recommend Sendai’s tanabata matsuri to anyone seeking an opportunity to really practice their Japanese and sightsee on Japan’s road less traveled.

Other Sendai Sightseeing:

One of the nice things about Sendai is that you can see the tanabata festival and still have time to see most of the non-festival city sights during those three days and not feel (as one often does in Tokyo or Kyoto) that you’re leaving half the city unexplored when you finally have to depart. Some other sights that are worth your attention in Sendai are:

Matsushima, named one of the 3 most scenic views in Japan in 1956, is not quite as beautiful or breathtaking as its rival Miyajima. My brother thought it was a tad more commercially overgrown and tacky and probably looked nicer in ’56 than it does now, but the landscape is truly unique. Matsushima is still highly worth the hour train ride and a full day spent riding the ferry and exploring the many small islands and temples that dot its shores. For a less crowded and slightly longer boat ride get off the train at Shiogama before Matsushima proper and follow the signs to the “Marine Gate” to take a ferry across the bay rather than the loop tour from Matsushima harbor. Be sure to try local kaki (oysters) for lunch and if you are into souvenirs this is a good place to pick up a kokeshi, a wooden doll turned on a lathe and hand-painted that greatly resembles an upside down baseball bat or an egg.

Sendai has a local tourist bus called the Loople or ru-puru that runs from the station makes a great loop of all the noteworthy tourist sites in the city center and returns to the station in a one-way circle. 600yen will get you a one-day off-on pass well worth the cost. It takes you to the Zuihoden, Sendai City Museum, and Aoba-jo castle site.

The Zuihoden is the family tomb of the Date clan, the local daimyo family dating from the 17^th century. Date Masamune and his sons are buried here. What the tourist brochures understate is the fact that the buildings were all destroyed during the war and reconstructed in the 1970s. They are still lovely and the reconstruction allowed an intensive archeological examination of the tombs, human remains and grave goods. Apparently the heads of the Date clan wanted to go to their eternal rest in giant bronze pickle jars! The story is told in a nice documentary that plays on loop in the museum. The Japanese narration will be challenging but well-worth a watch even if you can’t understand it all, if you have any interest in archaeology or feudal Japan.

Continue your historical study at the Sendai City Museum, the next stop on the Loople bus. A small museum, it can be thoroughly cased in a couple hours. Don’t expect a lot of English signage, though. Come in with a little history of the region under your belt and you will know what you are looking at from Jomon pottery to a painting of Hasekura Tsunenaga, a Date family’s envoy to Rome in the early 17^th century.  Contrary to what you’ll find in most American museums the restaurant, run by a local hotel, is good and serves a variety of Japanese and Japanized-western food. It will set you back about 1500yen per person.

The last stop that we felt worthy of our attention was Aoba-jo, once the site of the local castle. The castle itself had long since succumbed to earthquakes and the war. All that’s left is a large open area on top of a hill and the outer walls that have been largely reconstructed. As a park, it has a wonderful view of downtown Sendai. The giant omiyage shop was better than most and was honestly mostly filled with local items, not mass-produced crap. A local craftsman was selling kokeshi he made himself and another stall featured old-fashioned candy in marvelous boxed omiyage sets. I found that the Sendai locals were just tickled to see any foreign tourists at all even during the festival season and I walked away with several omake gifts just for making modest purchases and speaking Japanese to the shopkeepers.

Sendai Food:

Like any Japanese city, Sendai is known by its local food specialties. Food items that should be sampled or bought back to co-workers and friends in the form of omiyage. Sendai is particularly known for gyu-tan, zunda mochi, and kamaboko.

Gyu-tan, or beef-tongue, is actually more eater friendly than it sounds. The tongue is sliced very thinly to compensate for its chewy texture. I recommend that you go to one of the gyu-tan restaurants to sample this rather than try to grill it yourself at a yakiniku joint for the best eating experience. Sendai has over 20 gyu-tan joints. There is a map of all of them in the city center (Japanese only). We were given this map by a hotel desk clerk when we politely asked for a recommendation.

We went to Rikkyu, a local chain with 2 or 3 local locations including one on the Ichibancho. They have set dinners that will allow you to sample this local specialty grilled like steak, in curry, and stew, with a side of oxtail soup, for about 2000yen a head. For 400 yen at the register you can buy a 12pack of their house gyu-tan salami. This tastes just like smoked Italian salami from back home.

Zunda mochi is mochi filled with paste made from edamame beans. Remarkable for its bright green color you will see lots of it for sale in omiyage shops and in Sendai station. If you like anko and edamame you will probably take to zunda paste just fine. But beware, like most mochi, the products don’t keep long after purchase. We were able to find some zunda filled manjyuu that had an expiration a week after purchase, not nearly as yummy as the mochi buns however.

Sendai is also known for its distinctively shaped grilled kamaboko, or fish cake. We sampled this in an omiyage shop. It tastes just like most of the other fish cake things I’ve tried in Japan, so unless you’re a fan of reconstituted fish product (like I am) nothing to write home about. It can be purchased vacuum packed for easy transport.