Sendai: Day 2

Day 2 started with Traveling Circus Girl aka MirPir (from this point forward will be refered to as TCG) having to get ready for her Japanese class. I chose to continue sleeping while TCG got ready and departed from the hotel.

I finally walked the 15 minutes walk towards the Japanese class as indicated in the map TCG left me, while stopping around at several book stores and started the day with a hot bread, fresh out of the oven, while reading McCall Smith's "Portuguese Irregular Verbs".
I don't know whether it is a combination of having the right set of holiday mind, or having a delicious hot bread, or being utterly fascinated by the dry humor of Professor Dr. Moritz-Maria von Igelfeld's absurd little life, or I-don't-know-what - but I started giggling uncontrollably in the middle of Cafe de Crie Sendai. Two elderly ladies who were sitting three tables away from my table looked up, puzzled and then started smiling at me. And then the store clerks also looked at me and started laughing. I looked at them a little disoriented for 2 seconds and then started laughing along with them. I like these people of Sendai, they're very friendly.
You see, in Tokyo, normally if I suddenly have a giggling fit (which, to be perfectly honest, happens quite often; especially when I'm reading a rather comical book), people around me will be disturbed by a sudden unusual outburst, and in trains some people might actually poke me and say, "Sssshhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!"
Not in Sendai! Ah, I like Sendai people. I do!

Then it came the time to pick TCG up from her Japanese class. I was a little early, so I wandered into the recycle shop nearby. Ole ole ole! That day was indeed my lucky day. I walked into a display of an open-heart necklace that I lost some years ago. About 14 years ago, my J-mum in Niigata gave me a valentine day's gift in a form of a Tiffany silver necklace. It is a very simple pendant, but I loved it very much. About 7 years ago, the chain broke, and thus I stopped wearing it. I finally got a replacement leather chain, but I have searched and searched, the pendant disappeared.
Until that fateful Friday when I walked into the recycle shop. I saw that they had that pendant with the chain, and it costed only 5,000 yen (about US$45)! My heart skipped a beat, and then I walked right to the shop lady and said, "Excuse me, I'd like to buy that necklace."
She said, "Do you know why we're selling it cheaply? The chain is a little dirty, but I'm sure you can get it cleaned."
I said firmly, "I'd like to buy it. Could you wrap it, please, thank you."
I was a 10 times happier girl when I left the store. Finally, I found it again!!! (FYI, this necklace if bought new would cost US$215 before tax)

Friday was such a beautiful day. TCG and I decided to go on a McDonald's picnic by the river on the way to visit Aoba Castle. Sendai is indeed a very beautiful green city. The water at the river was so clear. After we finished our burgers and took some photos, we decided to do a bit more exploring.

Interracial ducks couple

Don't you think it looks like we're sitting somewhere in Europe?

We walked up to Aoba Castle. The hike up was a little steep, but fun nonetheless. The castle was a little overrated, I have to say. Predominantly because there is no castle on site. It was demolished during the war time (WWII). So what we found were merely the foundation walls where the castle once was. The view from the top was still breathtaking, though!

TCG posing with the one-eyed dragon dude (Sendai's shogunate mascot)

TCG had to go back to get ready for the circus that evening, while I still have a few hours to kill and decided to visit Miyagi Museum or Art . With the 'steep' entrance fee of 300 yen, I gained admission to several nice exhibition by artists from the Miyagi prefecture area.

Of course it's nothing like The MET or MoMA, but still the collection is quite varied and sporadic.
If you do go to visit the museum, please don't forget to check out Churyo Sato's gallery. Mr. Sato is known to be Japan's greatest concrete sculptors. His works is similar to that of Rodin's. Mr. Sato is also known to be the first Japanese artist to ever having exhibited at Musee Rodin in Paris.

After that I went back to TCG's hotel and got ready for another privileged circus performance. TCG had organized a seat for me with the circus band in the pit for that evening. Let me tell you, I've sat at every possible wing and seat available, from the cheapest seat, to those very special seats where I could literally touch the stage. Whilst all those were very special, it doesn't get anymore special than to be amongst the inner circle. This experience deserves a special post, so I will leave the details to another day.

I think this recapped the brilliant second day of my visit in Sendai. Along with the especially delicious memory of the exquisite gyu-tan (beef tongue) meal at Rikkyu. Not only the meal was delicious and moderately priced, they deserve a special mention for their display of true customer service: admitting us in when we're 10 minutes past last order time, and left us to eat in peace until midnight, when the restaurant actually closes at 11 PM. Domo arigato gozaimashita, gochisosamadeshita from the bottom of our heart!