2012/04/25 - Sendai Report
bysean

Sendai is a city close to my heart because it was one of the first places that I had visited during my first trip to Japan to watch the World Cup ten years ago. Today we visit itscherry blossom spots. The city'scherry blossoms officially started opening on April 18 this year, and should be at their peak around this time.

Tsutsujigaoka Park

We arrived at Tsutsujigaoka Park at seven in the morning and there were already many picnic mats laid out under the trees, in preparation of thehanami (cherry blossom viewing) sessions later in the day. In fact, we noticed some tents and other people sleeping with blankets on the sheets, which suggest that they might have camped overnight to reserve their spots.

Tsutsujigaoka Park has a good mix of Somei Yoshino, Shidare, and Yaebeni Shidare cherry trees (more information about cherry blossom varieties). The Somei Yoshino and the Shidare were at full bloom, while the Yaebeni Shidare were approaching full bloom as well.

Mikamine Park

Mikamine Park is an excellent place for hanami as it has lots of open space surrounded bycherry trees. While there were not many visitors at the park when we visited early at eight, it would most likely get more crowded in the afternoon and especially so over the coming weekend.

The cherry blossoms were at full bloom and the huge lawn at the park provided for a thoroughly enjoyable morning walk for us and other early birds.

Nishi Park

While Nishi Park does not have quite as manycherry trees as the previous two locations, there is ahanami festival going on here until the end of the month, which means delicious festival food available at the numerous temporary food stalls. The festival is from about ten in the morning to about ten at night.

The state of the cherry blossoms was similar to that of the previous two locations. Hopefully, the rain which is forecasted to fall tomorrow and the next day would not be too heavy, in which case cherry blossom viewing would still remain very pleasant for this weekend's hanami goers to the differentspots inSendai.

Aoba Castle

The Aoba area was unfortunately badly damaged during theearthquake last year. While not particularly a great location for seeingcherry blossoms,Aoba Castle offer good panoramic views ofSendai city. Construction work is however still undergoing at some parts of the observation platform, and is scheduled to be completed by May this year.

The few cherry trees at the castle grounds were nevertheless still quite pretty with their blossoms fully opened. One terrific picture would be that of the statue of Date Masamune (feudal lord ofSendai in the past) and the cherry tree by its side.

As we walked around, we could still see traces of the damage caused by last year's disaster, but conditions have visibly improved.Last year we reported about one of the stone lanterns which toppled over; that has been replaced with a new one. The main road leading to the location of the castle's former main keep, although still not open to motorists, is now open to pedestrians.

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