Second Stop: Sendai!

Sendai matsuri is also one of the three famous matsuris in north-east Japan. We expected it to be quite similar to aomori matsuri but it turned out to be something quite different. We arrived Sendai on August 8th at around noon after a two hour ride of sinkansen (bullet train). Here you will have to admire the speed and efficiency by which the Japanese people travel. No wonder the airline companies in Japan never make profit--when a commute between two cities far apart on the map could be as easy as stepping onto the train and leaning back, maybe taking a nap, who would take the trouble to drag suitcases across the gigantic hall of an airport?

The theme for the Sendai matsuri is "tanabata"--Festival of the Weaver. The legend of the Weaver could be found at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tanabata. The Chinese version was slightly different. It is interesting to see how Japanese molded their social value of "一生懸命" (work hard as if all your life is tied onto one string) into the story when the Tentei punished the two lovers by separating them because they derelicted their duty and squandered their time.

Just as the pictures show, huge cylindrical decorations hung down a from an arched roof all the way to one meter above the ground alone four or five sections of corridors. The colorful designs and intricate origamis on the decorations were an overwhelming feast to the eyes, and the feeling of the paper strands caressing your face whe I moved through them pushed by the crowd was also a memorable experience. During the normal times the long corridors must have been a central shopping area, because along the walkway shops and restaurants lined up in a glittering array, all giving out huge discounts. Some local food speicalty shops were putting out little bites of free food for people to try in order to draw them in, so we took little bites of food every here and there as we ambled along aimlessly. There was a kind of green bean sweet rice cake that was supposed to be one of their local special treats, but it didn't taste so different from a Chinese 元宵 (Chinese sticky rice ball with red bean paste inside).

Also, another kind of their exciting offer was roasted cow tongue. Tender indeed. We sat in a restaurant for roasted cow tongue at around 11 am when our stomach was ready for a real feast after random snacking tasting, and each one of us ordered a set with miso soup, rice, salad, and three slices of cow tongue. It was a weird feeling when you ate and think about what you were chewing....ewwww. But the juicy and tender meat slightly salted--otherwise kept its original flavor--was definitely worth the 20 bucks we spent.



Another attraction in Sendai is the Northeastern University of Japan, where the very famous Chinese writer, revolutionist and cultural critic Lu Xun once studied. As he mentioned in his article Professor Fujino, his teacher during his years at the university won his great respect through his conscientious teaching and his non-discrimination against Chinese oversea students. The teacher was made famous by the article later then, and Chinese universities invited him to become a visiting professor, but he politely turned it down for unknown reasons.

The statue behind me is Lu Xun. A concerned and ambitious look on his face.