Went on a trip to Sendai last weekend and had an awesome time. We were only there for 2 days and 1 night, but we managed to do everything we wanted to.

On the first day we arrived at Sendai Station (the beautiful stained glass in photo #1) and had lunch, after which we headed over to our hotel, dropped off our bags, and then headed off to do some sightseeing.

Our first stop was Funaoka Castle Park. The cherry blossoms were really nice and there was a cherry blossom festival or something like that taking place and there were some food stalls as wells, so we picked up some snacks and relaxed for a bit. We were able to see the large Kannon statue from a distance but opted not to go all the way to the top because we had some other stuff planned.

After Funaoka Castle Park we made our way towards Shiroishi Castle.
On the way to the castle from Funaoka Castle Park there’s the famous Hitome Senbon-Zakura, which we were able to enjoy for the entire walk to the castle. The cherry blossoms along the river were quite the treat.

During our walk to the castle, we came across another cherry blossom festival with more food stalls. We had a couple more snacks and enjoyed the views before heading towards the station to get to Shiroishi Castle.

As we were walking to the castle I found some cool art on some shop shutters.
The path leading up to the castle was dotted with lanterns and was really pretty, especially as it was nearing sunset.

We arrived at the castle with just a bit of sunlight left and we were just lucky enough to take some nice photos.
After the castle, we had some dinner at a nice Izakaya and headed back to Sendai Station where our hotel was.

The first day was all about seeing the beautiful views of cherry blossoms, but the second day we decided to enjoy the history and culture of the area.

We started off by visiting Zuihoden, the mausoleum for Date Masamune. On the approach to the complex, we saw some interesting buildings where we stopped to take pictures and check out the architecture.

The row of trees lining the steps to Zuihoden reminded me of the famous row of trees at Togakushi Shrine in Nagano.

There were a lot of different structures, and learning about the history and what they were all built for was really interesting.
Unfortunately I have too many photos and can’t post them all here.

After we finished up at Zuihoden, which took a while because I wanted to read every single sign that we came across, we headed over to Sendai Castle (Aoba Castle).
Again, I have too many photos to post, so I’ll just leave it to the famous statue of Date Masamune. The view from the top of the castle was quite nice and the other structures around the castle grounds were really interesting to learn about as well.

After the castle, we were running out of time, and so we decided to start making our way back to Sendai Station. We ended up getting off a few stations early because my girlfriend had read that there was an event at Nishi Park.

I can’t post all of the photos, but it was a really big cherry blossom festival with food stalls, etc.

I highly recommend visiting Sendai during spring, as it’s definitely worth the trip. Most of the places we visited were not crowded at all, and we had an awesome trip.