A Day in Sendai

Because I was invited to do a couple of lectures series in Japan this summer, Joy and I were able to celebrate our 35th wedding anniversary in Sendai, where we lived with our family for 9 years. We decided to spend a day sight-seeing around the city, taking in places we'd always wanted to visit together but missed while we lived there. The Christian Martyrs Monument was our first destination. We had lunch at a traditional restaurant, and took in a couple of gardens at a historic Shinto shrine and a Buddhist temple.

An old building in the downtown area.

Kids returning to class from a dip in the pool.

The Christian Martyrs Monument near the Hirose River.

Hydrangeas at the Shinto shrine.

Bamboo groves like this one are not only beautiful to look at, but are believed to be safer places to go in an earthquake. You see them often in older neighborhoods.

We had lunch in this traditional Japanese restaurant. I was impressed by this design on one of the walls (below).

You see these little "jizo" (neighborhood protectors) all over Japan. People like to show their affection by dressing them in caps and bibs. Temple gardens.

Joy is standing next to a tea house in the gardens.

Pagodas, like the one above, typically enshrine Buddhist relics.

Temple bells are longer than western ones, and emit a lower-pitched, more somber tone.

Can you imagine the complaints from neighbors if tourists were always ringing this bell? Shop sign in the shopping arcade in Sendai. Didn't know freedom of the soul was so easy now did you?!