There's nothing like sleep after 22 hours awake. Morning routine has been watching tv in the morning while having breakfast. The programming is pretty light and drags. They spent about 30 minutes on a chef that likes to drink coffe in his free time. The sad thing is the same people are still flogging the same fluff10 years later! Mercy! Its also sort of funny to watch them using paper and cardboard props in an age of computer graphics but why change a good thing. The funniest thing was watching a lady explain the smoke when they decide on a Pope at the Vatican. She had a cardboard chimney and put white cotton fluff to represent smoke in the bottom and then pulled it out the top to show the decision hasn't been made yet. Then she stuck black cotton fluff to represent smoke in to show that the decision had been made. It was like watching a 3rd grader demonstrate their science fair project.
We left to visit Matsushima which translates to "Pine Island". It was a favourite place of mine to visit since it reminded me so much of Ontario. As we travelled up the coast, we could see broken boats and empty space where there should have been buildings.
At Matsushima, it seemed a little sleepier than before. It's the third most popular tourist spot in the country. The seawall was out of bounds since it was still damaged. Shop owners waved from across the street and called us to come in. I'd seen this behaviour in Central America but never in Japan. They must be desperate for customers.
We visited the shrine built by the first ruler of the Sendai area named Date Masamune. He was a small guy with one eye but he took over the area and lives forever now. The shrine was filled with Buddist statues and wall pictures but it was difficult to understand much of it even when it was translated to English. The forest bordering the walkway is filled with big cedars but a section on the other side was missing. More tsunami damage. We finished off the tour with a sesame seed soft ice cream. Yummy.
Evening was spent with Kenji and Yukiko Kikuchi. Kenji and Megumi worked together 20 years ago at the video store and after the tsunami, Megumi wondered where he was. She searched for him and they got in contact again. Him and his wife are antique dealers and get to travel around Europe. We ate at a local Izukaya which is a pub and I got to enjoy all my favourite foods and suntory beer. We found out that Kenji's parents had skipped a plan to go play gateball in a local park near the ocean on the day of the tsunami. Later, they found out several hundred peope had died in the park. Very scary. They showed us pictures taken in the aftermath of the tsunami. Cars were perched on fences 6 feet off the ground. Cars were also at odd angles and smashed together like child's toys. Very sobering. Overall though, we had a good time and I was ready to call it a night when someone suggested we go to the bar called "Titty Twister"-I swear I am not making the name up. The owners were Tarantino fans and its the name of a bar in one of his movies. The owners knew the original meaning and almost seemed proud of it. The Kikuchi's ordered all you can drink for 90 minutes. I had quite a few rum and comes while Kenji and Megumi had beers. It soon caught up with them as their speech began to slur. We left for home and we almost made it when Kenji veered off like a North Korean rocket test and headed for the Panda Ramen shop. We got ramen and fried rice and I remarked how delicious the Panda meat was. Gluttons for punishment, Kenji ordered another bottle of beer and he and Megumi shared it. By 3:00 am, we were kicked out of the shop as it was closing and we made it home. They hugged us goodbye which is a bit unusual for Japanese people but it was really nice to meet them. I'm sure we'll see them further down the road.
We left to visit Matsushima which translates to "Pine Island". It was a favourite place of mine to visit since it reminded me so much of Ontario. As we travelled up the coast, we could see broken boats and empty space where there should have been buildings.
At Matsushima, it seemed a little sleepier than before. It's the third most popular tourist spot in the country. The seawall was out of bounds since it was still damaged. Shop owners waved from across the street and called us to come in. I'd seen this behaviour in Central America but never in Japan. They must be desperate for customers.
We visited the shrine built by the first ruler of the Sendai area named Date Masamune. He was a small guy with one eye but he took over the area and lives forever now. The shrine was filled with Buddist statues and wall pictures but it was difficult to understand much of it even when it was translated to English. The forest bordering the walkway is filled with big cedars but a section on the other side was missing. More tsunami damage. We finished off the tour with a sesame seed soft ice cream. Yummy.
Evening was spent with Kenji and Yukiko Kikuchi. Kenji and Megumi worked together 20 years ago at the video store and after the tsunami, Megumi wondered where he was. She searched for him and they got in contact again. Him and his wife are antique dealers and get to travel around Europe. We ate at a local Izukaya which is a pub and I got to enjoy all my favourite foods and suntory beer. We found out that Kenji's parents had skipped a plan to go play gateball in a local park near the ocean on the day of the tsunami. Later, they found out several hundred peope had died in the park. Very scary. They showed us pictures taken in the aftermath of the tsunami. Cars were perched on fences 6 feet off the ground. Cars were also at odd angles and smashed together like child's toys. Very sobering. Overall though, we had a good time and I was ready to call it a night when someone suggested we go to the bar called "Titty Twister"-I swear I am not making the name up. The owners were Tarantino fans and its the name of a bar in one of his movies. The owners knew the original meaning and almost seemed proud of it. The Kikuchi's ordered all you can drink for 90 minutes. I had quite a few rum and comes while Kenji and Megumi had beers. It soon caught up with them as their speech began to slur. We left for home and we almost made it when Kenji veered off like a North Korean rocket test and headed for the Panda Ramen shop. We got ramen and fried rice and I remarked how delicious the Panda meat was. Gluttons for punishment, Kenji ordered another bottle of beer and he and Megumi shared it. By 3:00 am, we were kicked out of the shop as it was closing and we made it home. They hugged us goodbye which is a bit unusual for Japanese people but it was really nice to meet them. I'm sure we'll see them further down the road.