Sendai/Matsushima: Day 14

At 7:30 or so we woke up and went down to the kitchen for our traditional Japanese breakfast. It was, how do I say this… traditional? There was a lot of food and a lot of different dishes. It, to me, was about the same as a dinner. We had rice, fish, a salad, egg plant, some sausage and vegetables. It was good and filling, definitely, but it didn’t feel like a breakfast. I guess it was kind of like how they eat black beans and rice every morning in Costa Rica. Just give me some scrambled eggs and I’ll be happy =P.

We took the train out to Matsushima, but it turned out that we kind of took the wrong line. It took us to the other side of Matsushima so we had to walk through a neighborhood in order to get to the touristy part. We got to see some cool stuff though, so it was worth it.

They also have really cool manhole covers the Sendai area.




Another thing that was exciting for me is that I finally got to see some Jizo statues that we talked about in my Japanese class. Basically, Jizo was a Buddhist priest that traveled through the afterlife and helped children. The people love him because he helps children so if it ever rains or something they come out and put ponchos or hats on the Jizo to protect them from the rain.


Another cool thing about us coming into Matsushima the back way was that we accidentally entered a temple through the service gate, and therefore didn’t have to pay. Shhhh, don’t tell anyone. See, what happened was that we were wandering around, trying to find this temple and then we saw this old woman go through this tunnel. We were like “hmmm, maybe we should follow the old woman”. Haha, that kind of sounded like the beginning of a horror movie =P.

Anyway, we went in and found out that we were in the temple. Both of us were like “cool, the temple”. No one said anything either, so I guess it didn’t matter too much. We explored the temple pretty thoroughly. It was really cool. Here are some photos.






When we left we realized that we should have paid and we both shrugged and said “oops”.

After wandering around some more we found wasabi-flavored kit-kats, I think, anyway. They were either wasabi or some kind of bean… Then I took a picture of myself.


We wandered around and went to this little island that turned out to be a place where Buddhist monks used to hang out hundreds of years ago. There are also a lot of them buried there.

I want to make a special note here… At about this time I took my 10,000th picture with my camera and it rolled back over to IMG_0001. I thought it was cool.

The monks had really old statues of what I assume are the Buddhist gods.

Here are some pictures from on and around the island.


Me again.



This rail may look like wood, but it was rock. Erin didn’t notice until I pointed it out =P.


For lunch we went to a “Family Restaurant” called Skylark Gusto. It was actually very good. I also made another Initial D reference in my mind because in the show they ate at Family Restaurants all the time.

Outside the restaurant.


These bridges had really wide slats because they Buddhist monks took a vow of celibacy and wanted to keep the women out. At the time the women all wore kimonos and wooden shoes with heels. They had to take very short steps so if they tried to cross the bridge to the island they would fall. Talk about the ultimate no girls allowed fort.


We worked our way back to the ryokan and this time I took some pictures of the room.





For dinner we went to an Indian restaurant down the street and had the curry buffet. We also had all you can eat naan, which is really good flat bread. The food was excellent but I felt bad for the guy because he was by himself and we were the only customers. I hope he is more successful in the future.

After dinner Erin and I both went to take another bath. This time my fears were realized and a few Japanese businessmen joined me in the bath. Thankfully at least I was already in the Jacuzzi when they came in so it was a little less awkward. Not that it though, because then they got in the Jacuzzi they all started talking to me and asking questions.
So there I was, naked, being asked questions in a foreign language. It was an experience… that is for sure. A little while later they asked if they could practice their English and I said “yes”. We began talking in English and it turns out that a couple of them had visited the US before, but didn’t know where Georgia was. Another weird thing was that they would always say “そうですか”, or “is that so…”, under their breath every time I answered a question. It was a little creepy to tell you the truth. Eventually they left and after they disappeared I quickly got back to the safety of my room and went to bed. Tomorrow we are going to our next destination… Mt. Fuji.