Since my last entry I've been travelling from Toyako Onsen, via Hakodate, Sendai, Nagoya, Hiroshima and finally to Beppu (where I am now). I have to be back in Osaka to fly back on the 28th (I have a hotel booked there for that night) but I have a friend in Beppu who I wanted to see before I left. So, despite it being quite a trek, here I am...
Anyway, on my way down I spent a couple of days in Sendai. There isn't that much to see there, but with beautiful coastline so near, you can easily kill a few days.
My first day I decided to go and see the coast, which is contains thousands of small, rocky islands, each covered in wind-shaped trees. It is apparently "One of the 3 most beautiful places in Japan". Sadly, late May sees the beginning of Japan's brief rainy season, and I was caught underneath a terrific thunderstorm right as I was eating my lunch on the beach. On the plus side, this made for some quite spectacular seas...
The next day was thankfully much drier. I took a look at two of Sendai's most important historical sights - the Zuihoden Mausoleum (for the old domain lord of Sendai, Date Masamune, and following members of the Date clan), and Sendai Castle (which is mostly no longer there).
The mausoleum is a collection of beautiful old buildings set in the woods, such as...
From the site of Sendai Castle, the view over the city is quite spectacular (and even better with hawks circling overhead).
There's a famous statue of Date Masamune on horseback near this viewpoint. Note the Date clan emblem on the helmet...
...which you can see on what is, I believe, his original armour...
There's also quite a sizable shrine on the castle site.
Taking the bus back from the site of the castle to Sendai station, we got stuck in VERY heavy traffic. The bus was about 40 mins late getting to the station. The reason for this became obvious as we neared the station...
I think this was the Aoba-dori Festival (although what it's in aid of, I don't know). It was worth my getting off the bus at the station and backtracking for, anyway.
From Sendai I moved onto Nagoya. I went through Nagoya more through neccessity than anything else, but I met up with some friends I made there the first time, which was nice.
From Nagoya I got another bus down to Hiroshima. Again, I had done most of the sights in Hiroshima, but one exception was Hiroshima-jo castle (also known as 'Carp Castle'), so I made a point of going to see it.
Unlike Sendai Castle, Hiroshima-jo is actually still there. Well ok, it's a ferro-concrete reproduction, since it was totally destroyed in 1945, but it's quite attractive nonetheless.
The last image for today is a quick one I took on the ferry from Hiroshima to Beppu. Technically the journey was by bus, but the bus is loaded onto a small ferry which travels through the Inland Sea area. The Inland Sea is full of tiny islands, as well as being full of busy shipping lanes. The short boat ride through there was really quite interesting.
So anyway, right now I am in Beppu (again). I leave here tomorrow, probably on a night bus bound for Osaka, if there is one. Staying in Osaka, the only thing I have left to do is to get the train across to the island of Shikoku - the only one of the 4 major islands I haven't visited yet. There's not a huge amount there (unless you want to do the traditional 88 Temples pilgrimmage, which takes months...) but there are some whirlpools off the coast of the town of Naruto which I hope to see, plus the world's longest suspension bridge (which I mentioned a while back).
And from there...back to the UK. Ah well...
Take care everyone,
James
