The North: Day 6 - Sendai-ing to Get Some Pictures of Spider-man

 Our first full day in Sendai started like most do, with a train to Morioka. The plan for the day is to go to several different parks, see some trees, and not get soaked to the bone by unexpected rain. Let's see how many of those we can manage to accomplish!

Same selfie, two different photographers, vastly different results!

As always, the process of boarding the Shinkansen was easy and had absolutely no problems. This is not at all foreshadowing for things to come later in the day. We had some breakfast on the train, enjoyed a few more minutes of Train Time before we were already at our destination. (Angie: I had a really delicious ekiben with different foods from all over Tohoku! I think it's been my favorite meal so far this trip!) 

Onto a bus and we were off to The Oldest Sakura Tree In All Of Morioka. It's basically a Spite Tree, in that a large boulder was placed in front of a building and a tree grew there, splitting the tree into multiple chunks. There were many a tourist nearby (Edit: Remember, readers, *we* aren't tourists. That's other people. We're... uh... travelers? Something about Sovereign Citizen Nonsense? Don't worry about it.), several of whom asked to have us take their photos (mostly Angie) (I hope I took good photos for them!). 

We were mere blocks away from the first park: Morioka Castle Park. There weren't a lot of people there when we arrived (since it was like 830am), but within 30 minutes the place had many more Sakura Seekers (not to be confused with *The* Sakura Seekers, which is a Naruto Fangroup dedicated to the seventh best fighter in Hidden Leaf Village). There were some stalls setup for snacks, to be sold to various Flower Fanciers, and several easily accessible bathrooms. 

We took some photos, so enjoy those. 

----- Morioka Park Photos -----

Up next, we did *not* end up taking an incorrect bus and definitely didn't spend 30 extra minutes going around town to get to our following destination. Nope. Don't worry about it. We arrived at Takamatsu Park and noticed a few spittles of rain. But we were undeterred. We walked around the lake, taking photos as the rain increased. (Angie: But first we were even hopeful, as the sun came out and was pleasant for all of 5 minutes!) By the time we were 2/3 the way around, the rain was verging on glemmening. We persevered, though, after Angie acquired some oden (chikuwa and daikon) and I had a Calorie Mate. 

----- Takamatsu Park Photos -----

Back to the train station where I *absolutely* didn't pick the wrong option on the ticket machine, which caused us to lose another 30 minutes getting the issue resolved, before heading back to Sendai. (Angie: I had bought the tickets to Morioka ahead of time when back in the states from the website Eki-Net and it included the Reservation ticket and the Fare ticket. When we bought the tickets to get back to Sendai we used a JR shinkansen ticket machine and only made the reservations. So for future use and warning: PURCHASE BOTH RESERVATION TICKET AND FARE TICKET! They come out as two separate tickets but you stack them on top of each other and feed them through the ticket gate slot at the same time. Just FYI.)

We took about an hour to decompress and rest our tired joints (but also to compress...my ankle. It was angry and starting to swell so I put a [leaky] bag of ice on it, elevated it, and then threw on my compression socks and wore my ankle brace and took an Aleve) before we headed out back into the cold to do some more shopping. Animate, Lashinbang, Gamers. (Angie: Ah, but you forgot we hit up the Tohoku Pokemon Center which is RIGHT there outside the station and in the PARCO mall next door to our Apa Hotel! It was pretty busy so we didn't linger. It also had much the same merch, but I bought a Sendai exclusive Pikachu in Tanabata costume and the official Tohoku Center Pin, now that I know those exist! Wish they had started making those when we first started visiting these centers back in....2012? Yeah, we went to the one near the Tokyo Tower that first trip.) The cycle continues unabated. After finding a few trinkets and baubles (I found more materials for that DIY plushie! They had entire blank plushie dolls, so that's one less step for me to do! They also had the right color purple for Shido's hair!), we walked slightly too far to a Royal Host for dinner. Unlike the RH in Beppu back in 2023, this one was... fine. Think post-2014 Frisch's. Cafe Gusto still undefeated in the Family Restaurant space in 2026 (If only there was a Joyful, but I think those are only in the Kyushu region). 

Back to the hotel for a treato from the local kombini. Then off to bed, because damn. Lotta walking, again. 

And now, here's Angie for her take on the day:

It was a rainy day and colder than anticipated because who knew the weather could change so much within 180km (111 miles), and I swear the altitude was not that different! Either way, I had looked up the weather for Sendai which said small chance of rain and temps in the mid-60's. Instead we got constant drizzle and temps in the low 50's. Still, it wasn't raining more than it was, and there weren't any crowds to ruin photos or fight over spots to take photos and it was a pleasant stroll. The buses, while not easily marked, were very nice and useful and frequent enough to make getting around easy. I'm happy to have experienced so many cherry blossoms in Japan without the craziness that happens in heavily touristed areas. Needless to say, I think I overdid it on my ankle and the 1,015 steps up a mountain to Yamadera is not in our future tomorrow. But that's okay! It'll be nice to rest, wash up, and in the evening, we have a concert to go to!! I can't wait!