A friend of ours invited Amy to join her at a live concert in Sendai. It was a midday concert, so we decided to make it a short weekend trip.
We got up at 7:00 and were out the door by 7:30. We headed over to pick up our friends. Along the way we stopped off and got gas. We picked up our friends at 7:45. After a brief breakfast stop at 7-11 we were on the road by 8:00.
Since time was of the essence we decided to take the ETC toll road. We got on at the Mito-Kita IC entrance. The drive took a little over three hours to complete. The area in and around Hitachi had a lot of tunnels that I can say I’m not a big fan of. We stopped for a brief bathroom break at the Torinoumi Parking Area (鳥の海PA). The facilities were quite modern, but were limited to bathrooms, a waiting area, and vending machines. We exited the Natorichuo Smart IC. The total charge came out to ¥3,060 which was after the 30% discount applied to weekend and holiday travel.
We stopped off for a brief lunch at Bread Park (考えた人すごいわ ブレッドパーク名取) in Natori. After lunch we had a little time to spare before the concert. We decided to check out The Mall Sendai Nagamachi which was a sprawling multi-level multi-building structure. We did some light window shopping. After, we headed back to the car and dropped the girls off at their concert.
We then took the car and drove to APA Villa Hotel Sendaieki – Itsutsubashi to see if we could check in early. Due to the limited amount of space in the area, the parking garage was an automatic car elevator. It was our first time using one, but the attendant helped walk us through the process. With our car parked away, we headed into the hotel. We were surprised to find we could check in early. The process went smoothly and we headed to our rooms on the 9th floor.
We got settled in our rooms and headed towards Sendai Station. Along the way we stopped by Graniph which was a clothing shop located in S-PAL Mall. A number of their graphic T-shirts caught our eye. We looked around a bit before deciding to come back later.
We made our way to the third floor of Sendai Station to Zunda Saryo. We tried their Zunda (sweetened and crushed soybeans) Matcha milkshake. I was a little hesitant at first, but it was really good. The taste of the Zunda with the creaminess of the milkshake and the slight bitterness of the Matcha were a nice combination. It was also really refreshing on a hot day.
We looked around at a souvenir shop across the way and got a pair of Hagi no Tsuki (萩の月) to try. They were sponge cakes with a custard filling. They were good, but not amazing.
The girls concert ended a little earlier than we had anticipated, so we headed back to the hotel to pick up the car. Getting the car was a smooth process and we didn’t have to wait long.
After picking up the girls we headed back to the hotel and got situated. We headed out a short time later and made our way back to Graniph. They had a lot of really cute and original t-shirts for sale. We shopped around and ended up getting this Pokémon polo shirt.
We then made our way to Sendai Station’s main building. We went back to Zunda Saryo. Amy really enjoyed the Zunda (sweetened and crushed soybeans) Matcha milkshake as well. We then headed off to the Pokémon Store which was on the 8th floor of PARCO Sendai. We picked up some Pokémon themed socks, chopsticks, and coin presses. We looked around for a bit and then headed to the observation deck at the neighboring AER building.
Unfortunately, I had mixed up the closing times. I thought the observation deck closed at 21:00 (9:00 pm). Instead, it was the building that closed at 21:00 (9:00 pm). The observation deck closed at 20:00 (8:00 pm). It was already closed by the time we got there. We were a little bummed out, but decided to stop by next morning before heading out.
We headed back to the station and entered the gates to find Bake Cheese Tart. We wanted to try the different flavors of cheese tarts that they had. We arrived about 25 minutes before closing and found that the other three flavors had already been sold out for the day. All they had left were a couple of the original flavor. We picked up a couple and headed back outside of the station gates.
Being in Sendai, we knew that we had to have some of their famous gyutan (beef tongue). We headed towards gyutan dori (a row of beef tongue restaurants) in Sendai Station. We ended up going with Gyutan Yakisuke (牛たん 焼助 仙台駅 牛たん通り店). The meal was good and the prices were affordable. The restaurant was next to this giant statue of Date Masamune the founder of Sendai.
After dinner we headed back to the hotel and called it a night.
Final thoughts: The drive to Sendai was a bit long, but we were able to power through. We’re glad we decided to make it an overnight trip. We probably could have done it as a day trip, but the drive would have made it miserable. The Zunda milkshake from Zunda Saryo and the cheese tarts from Bake Cheese Tart were excellent. Highly recommend. We were a little bummed about the observation deck, but we made a plan to see it the following morning.
More to Come…