Japan Day 3 - JR to Sendai and Delicious Cow Products

As Hiro hustled to get out of the house to get supplies for the wedding welcome board she was taking up to Sendai that night, Rin made us a delicious breakfast. It was so nice to have home cooked food!

You can see Evan's just been reading the paper.

This was the view out their living room window/balcony. We could see people walking to work and generally going about their business on foot in the small alley-sized streets below. It was weird to see the amount of foot traffic roughly equaling that of car traffic. I wondered if it was weird that I felt it was weird, but I guess living in LA for so long can do that to a person.

As we'd taken the long route to the train station the day before (and we had all of our bags again) Rin took pity on us and led us to the bus stop that took us to the Den En Toshi line.

We visited Doutor for some coffee and Brian got a snack.

Rin had written out a detailed schedule of the times our bus, train, and other train would arrive and depart, so it was a super relaxed and easy ride to the Tokyo station, where we were to catch our shinkansen. We bought our eki-ben, waited for our oddly shaped train to pull up, and marched on board into our assigned car.

It was a little after lunch as we settled in, and after everybody was seated, the car was filled with the sound of plastic wrapped lunch boxes being opened.

We pulled out of the station and even though we were going pretty fast, the train really seemed to take off once we cleared the city.

Then it was time to tuck into lunch on the reals!

I got a bento with salmon and some stewed vegetables.

This is what the countryside looked like as we got further north. Rice fields!

We pulled into Sendai station and I made the guys take pictures with the welcome kokeshi doll.

Yes, I even forced Brian to.

This was the main foyer of the station. We popped into the Tourist Info Center off to the left, for maps and directions to the ryokan.

Then walked out and downstairs to the bus stops.

The bus took us down one of the main streets and what I think was one of the bigger shopping arcades in Sendai. We got off in front of the University Hospital, and after asking several nice ladies for directions, found the inn.

Nobody was at the front desk when we walked in. As we milled around wondering what we were to do, a delivery guy sailed up and hit the button that summoned someone to the front. It seemed like the front desk lady spoke some English, but directed us to take off our shoes and put on the house slippers in Japanese.

We filled out the forms and gave her our passports to make copies of, then she showed us the lockers we were to put our shoes in, when we were at the ryokan.

Evan practicing his seiza influenced stance.

The front desk had also passed on some messages from the relatives. Mihoko had called and left her phone number. We called her back and she said she'd come by as she'd just gotten off work, and then we'd go get some dinner. We also had a confusing phone call with another set of relatives, which Brian made me field because my Japanese was "better."

We freshened up and watched a little TV, and when Miho arrived, we showed her the pictures Dad had printed and mailed me - visual aids for meeting the family. We learned she'd visited Hawaii 20 years ago, staying with our Aunty for about a month, and she remembered us!

After making sure it was ok for her car to be parked at the ryokan for a bit, we hoofed it over to the gyutan place around the corner. It was pretty empty, so Miho decided to take us to a place she knew. We walked along the leafy Jozenji-dori and admired the Mediatheque, then walked a little further to the more night-lifey area.

One of the more useful places we passed was the 7-11 - which is quite different in Japan. Not only is there a weird "& i Holdings" cluged onto the logo, the food is much more edible than in the U.S. - it's closer to Famima levels of acceptability.

We got slightly turned around in the warren of side streets.

Everybody knows Japan is good with the food models, but this animatronic one took it to the next level.

We filed into the gyutan joint - already populated with lots of business men in black suits - and were seated at the table in the back corner. Off with the shoes! Up onto the platform!

And then we had the stuff. I think it was pretty much all they served, and we only had to say how many portions of it we were ready to demolish. It was pretty good! But the soup that came with it was really really good!

We ate until we couldn't eat any more, then hit the 7-11 & iHoldings for dessert. Miho recommended an ice cream called MOW (pronounced like "mow the lawn"). It was fantastic!

Right next door, MOW in hand, Evan took great delight in the name of the Italian Tomato Cafe Jr. Duly noted, mister.

We walked back to the inn, and made plans to hang out with Miho the next day.