Happy Family: October 2008 III

October 2008, III

Our Trip to Sendai
Sendai is a large city about halfway between us and Tokyo (it took a little under four hours to get there). Nearby is a place called Matsushima Bay, which is supposed to have some of the most scenic viewing spots in Japan. It was very nice, but not any neater than Lake Towada, which is very near to us.

At Matsushima Bay

This is another Shinto shrine.
This one has many cavities and caves that have been carved into rock.
Any time you see a red "torii" gate, and it goes back into secluded trees, it's sure to be a Shinto Shrine. The Shinto religion is difficult to figure out, but it has some elements of nature and spirit ("kami") worship (not just spirits of people, but also spirits of places, things, etc.). It is said that Shintoism covers you for this life, and Buddhism covers you for the life to come--so many people live Shinto and have Buddhist funerals.

This is a different Shinto shrine in the same area.

Views of Matsushima Bay from the last shrine.

On to Sendai.

Sendai City at night. It was a bit like Manhattan's Time's Square, but it didn't feel as squished.

Sendai was founded in 1600 by a man named Date Masamune, and many of the tourist attractions have something to do with him, or his family that ruled the area.

Up long stone steps to the Date Masamune Mausoleum.

This is another Shinto-related thing: there is a fountain of water near the entrance to a shrine, and you're supposed to wash your hands and rinse your mouth out with the water. It has to do with being physically clean and pure, which is especially important to Shintoism

Some ornamentation on the mausoleums.

Unfortunately, much of this place was leveled by WWII bombings, and the current mausoleums were built just a few decades ago.

These next pictures were taken on the grounds of the "Castle Sendai."
After having seen Hirosaki Castle, we were expecting to find a castle like that one here. We looked all over, and finally confused some Japanese women working in one building by asking where the castle was. It turns out it was demolished in WWII, and only the exterior fortification wall still exists. No wonder the women were confused by our questions.

A good view of Sendai

If you look in the distance of this picture, you will see the Dai Kannon, a huge Buddhist statue that you'll see more pictures of in a moment.

Date Masamune (with his characteristic eye patch--he only had one eye--and helmet with a crescent on top), along with some woman. Maybe his wife?

There was some sort of ceremony going on in this building when we passed, maybe a wedding?

The Dai Kannon.
A huge Buddhist statue (apparently the world's fifth largest statue).
You'd think such a big thing would be easy to get to, but it took us forever to find it.
By the time we got there, it was getting late, and the woman inside said we'd only be able to get partway up before we'd have to come back down again, so we didn't get to go in. Oh well.

A quick view of how big it is.

Halloween.
I actually never got around to taking pictures of my kids in their costumes, or while they were trick-or-treating (we kept forgetting our camera). I feel a good amount of motherly guilt about this. These pictures were taken by a friend who we spent Halloween with...

Katelyn with our friend's little boy--notice the doughnut he is so happy about. This year I made Alton Brown's recipe, and they were the best doughnuts I've ever made.