Sendai - Tanabata Matsuri Festival

We arrived at the famous Sendai Tanabata Matsuri Festival location.

Inside the arcade...?

Actually I've been to Hiratsuka Tanabata Matsuri when I was a student.

It was at open area (that means there was no roof) and I thought Sendai would be bigger version of Hiratsuka...

But still Tanabata decoration is so colourful and nice!

BTW, what's "Tanabata"?

Here's Wiki as usual. :)

Tanabata (meaning "Evening of the seventh") is a Japanese star festival, originating from the Chinese Qixi Festival. It celebrates the meeting of the deities Orihime and Hikoboshi (represented by the stars Vega and Altair respectively). According to legend, the Milky Way separates these lovers, and they are allowed to meet only once a year on the seventh day of the seventh lunar month of the lunisolar calendar. The date of Tanabata varies by region of the country, but the first festivities begin on July 7 of the Gregorian calendar. The celebration is held at various days between July and August.

Since young we believe our wish would come true when we write it on the paper strip called "Tanzaku". :)

 ...but this festival is just to see the decoration, so we just need to walk, walk and walk...
This arcade was quite big...!

While walking we found typical Japanese festival shops..!

Gold fish catching!

 This is the fish my son caught for the first time!

But of course we cannot bring them back cuz I don't think fish can survive in the plane back to Singapore. :p

This one is Yo-yo catcher!

He brought it back but...we totally forgot to bring back to Singapore.

Sendai - Gyutan lunch (Ox tongue)

First place we visited in Sendai was Hillside Shops and Outlets.

It seems there is no English site, so this website has some info in English.

Obviously it's an outlet shops but we didn't come to shop.
We came to eat "Gyutan lunch"!
In fact, no time to shop here...

Here's the restaurant we had "Gyutan"!

Again I found a new thing here during this trip..

It seems "Gyutan" (Ox tangue) was originally from Sendai!

I didn't know that... (x.x)

From Wiki:

Gyūtan was created when Sano Keishirō, the owner of a yakitori restaurant in Sendai, opened a new restaurant that served cow tongue dishes in 1948. 

This is "Gyutan" lunch! 

Japanese whole grain rice.

Gyutan usually comes with whole grain rice.

...usually with grated Japanese yam too.

But this hope didn't provide grated Japanese yam, so only plain whole grain rice.

This is "Gyutan" - Ox tongue! 

It was a little thicker than I thought..

Also the taste is a little different from what I used to eat.

Because it was thicker, it was chewy to eat...

I noticed this restaurant provides the original "Gyutan" taste because Sendai is the origin of Gyutan!

I still prefer the current taste of Gyutan, which is "Tanshio" (salted Ox tongue).

Tansho is thinner and easier to eat. :)

Sendai - Introduction

Our next destination was "Sendai" in Miyagi prefecture.

Here's Wiki about Sendai:

Sendai (Sendai-shi) is the capital city of Miyagi Prefecture, Japan, and the largest city in the Tōhoku region. In 2005, the city had a population of one million, and was one of Japan's 20 designated cities. The city was founded in 1600 by the daimyo Date Masamune, and is well known by its nickname, the City of Trees (Mori no Miyako); there are about 60 zelkova trees on Jōzenji Street (Jōzenji dōri) and Aoba Street (Aoba dōri).

In the summer, the Sendai Tanabata Festival, the largest Tanabata festival in Japan, is held. In winter, the trees are decorated with thousands of lights for the Pageant of Starlight, lasting through most of December.

On March 11, 2011, coastal areas of the city suffered catastrophic damage from a magnitude 9.0 offshore earthquake which triggered a destructive tsunami.

Here's direction from Tokyo to Sendai.

And as stated in Wiki, Miyagi prefecture was affected by Tohoku earthquake and tsunami, causing the most victims in this area..

I also didn't know until I just checked the Wiki.
I can only found this info in Japanese wiki.

(With my English notes..)

At that time...
I was in Singapore and my mother messaged me and told me she was safe.
I didn't get what she meant first..
She explained to me about what happened and I couldn't believe this kind of disaster just happened in Japan!
My relative was staying Iwate prefecture and my mother was so worried because her call didn't get through.
But somehow I was able to communicate with my cousin by SMS so I was able to let my mother know that they were safe.. :)
But they told me whole village was black out..

After this incident, this area (not only these 3 prefectures) is suffered a lot of economical damage..

Well, in this Tohoku trip, overall impression is that Tohoku people were showing that they were just doing fine!
And my Tohoku trip proved that!

This area is really nice to visit.
A true Japanese culture and soul is there! :)