Matsyshima and Sendai

Wednesday, we spent the day up along the east coast about halfway between Tokyo and the northern most island (Haikkado). Matsushima Air Base is home to F2s and the Blue Impulse. We spent the morning there and photographed not only airplanes, but dragonflies and spiders as well (OK, we had time to kill). The weather wasn't super cooperative, but at least it didn't rain. We did have period of bright skies and a little sun - but not when there were airplanes to photograph.

Then, we went sightseeing in Matsushima. It is one of the three most beautiful spots in Japan

(Miyajima is also one). We walked out onto a couple of islands. One was basically a cemetery that must date back thousands of years. It was a beautiful view across towards the coast and across to the other islands. The skies cleared up, and we had fun walking around and taking in the sights. I plan to spend some time on the Internet finding out more about the area.

We also saw a man making the dolls for which the region is known. His shop was also like a Plaster Fun House in that you could paint your own. We also purchased what turned out to be baked rice crackers with salt and sugar on them. Very tasty. I can imagine how busy this town must be in the summertime.

After that, we drove back into Sendai to see the Rikko-ji garden. While we didn't have much time to spend here, we did walk through the gardens.

Rikko-ji was beautiful. It was overcast again by this time, but we enjoyed a quiet stroll - no one else was there.

Sendai is a very lovely city and most American of any of the cities we visited. the streets were wide and straight for the most part.

Then, we drove onto Utsunomiya where we had made reservations for the night. That way we would only have a short drive into Tokyo for Thursday. Of course, we were running later than

anticipated and it was nearly 8 PM when we arrived. We found one of the coffee houses that we have seen several of in our travels and ate there. We had our first beef! While different than in the states, it did resemble something familiar and we ate it. Of course, Joe's came with an egg on top! :-)