Settling into Sendai

Wednesday, August the 3rd: my final day in Tokyo!

All of us new JET employees met up with representatives of the Sendai Board of Education in the lobby of our hotel around 10AM. After that it was a short walk to Shinjuku Station - the busiest train station in the world with an average of 3.4 million passengers per day - for our trip to Sendai City on the bullet train! No pictures of the ride up, unfortunately. I was a sleepy passenger. Snapshots of the surrounding countryside would have been difficult in any case, as we were speeding away at 300 km/h for most of the ride.

Sendai Station! This is the nexus of most of the train/subway/bus
lines and thus acts as the heart of the town, with its own interior shopping area.

Sendai is a fairly big city, with its own vibrant downtown area full of high-rise buildings, shopping areas, restaurants, and busy intersections. It's no where near as big as Tokyo or even Toronto, but with over one million people it still can be called a bustling place. As far as cities goes it's actually really quite nice - the downtown area is compact and very pedestrian friendly, the people seem to be both more relaxed and also less crazy than Tokyoites, the subway system is cheap and very easy for foreigners to understand, and there's an incredible amount of tiny shops in the area just waiting to be explored. Oh, and the trees!

Trees!

More trees!

I only have pictures of the area around the station, but the take home lesson here is that Sendai loves trees, and trees are thus everywhere downtown. Or maybe it's the other way around? In any case, this explains how the city got its nickname - Mori no Miyako - which means City of Trees. But enough about the city; what about where I live??

Home sweet home!

I live just three subway stops, usually between 5 and 10 minutes, from Sendai station in an area named for its own subway station (which seems to be how they do things over here). Thus, when someone asks where I live, I say "Kawaramachi station!". It's actually quite accurate as my apartment is only a five minute walk from the subway station itself.

The entrance, from the other side.

My building stands out a fair bit on the block - it's a oddly shaped chocolate brown tower sticking out amongst the smaller and whiter buildings that surround it. There's a candy-bar related nickname just waiting to be attached to it, but I just haven't thought of it. 

Who likes elevators anyway.

It's hard to describe the entire apartment, especially with pictures, in a short amount of time. Once I am good and settled I plan on doing a video tour, but for now whatever I end up typing here and the attached album will be all we go on!

The front door, with its own little shoe-taking-off area.

Most Japanese apartments are cramped, but I lucked out in that I have a rather spacious place. The rent I end up paying is just karma, I suppose. When you enter the apartment there's a small T-shaped hallway, with the entrance at the bottom, the bathroom/shower/toilet rooms on the left point, and a door leading to the living areas on the right point.

Kitchen, living room, and bedroom, all rolled into one!

The kitchen and living room make up one area, while the bedroom is in another and divided by these nifty sliding doors. With the exception of a fridge, a futon, some blankets, a washing machine, and a few nick-nacks the Board of Education provides, the place is empty. Most people live in pre-furnished apartments and might not even notice these things, but in my apartment these things are all that separate me from a completely empty living area. Which is just eerie. Beyond the bedroom lies the balcony, and in Japan you will find that balconies are much more utilitarian than they are in the West.

You pay for location, not the view! :P

By utilitarian I mean that the idea (or even the physical reality) of lounging on your balcony and watching the sunrise is virtually non-existent here. Your balcony is for two things only, and that is drying clothes and airing out futons. Even its design - too thin for a chair, but the surrounding walls high enough to put out racks for drying without the clothes touching the ground - impose this fact on you. But I will find bar stools and I will become the one person in the neighbourhood who takes his coffee sitting out on the balcony while everyone around me hangs up their clothes or beats the dust our of their futon. Mark my words!

But, finally introduced to my apartment, it was time to go back downtown. Weren't we just there? Yes, but not only is downtown a fun place to hang out, but our arrival also lined up with the yearly Tanabata Festival. Sendai has its own section on that page, so you know it is a big deal. And it is!

The interior of Sendai station.

The whole town is covered in these colourful decorations at this time. The festival also brings a great many people to Sendai to visit, so downtown was much more crowded than usual.

More decorations!

The meaning behind the festival is rather complex, and I have yet to be given a comprehensive answer by anyone. What I do know is that it involves a love story related to the meeting of two stars in the night sky. The rest must remain a mystery for now!

One of these things is not like the others!

The spirit downtown during this time is great, however. There are tons of people, but they are all friendly and genuinely excited for the festivities. A lot of the people whip out their traditional Japanese clothing for this time, adding even more to the atmosphere. 

Walking through the covered shopping area near the station. 

A different covered walkway near the station!

On Friday night the festival had its official kick-off with a massive fireworks show. And we're talking massive, people. They like their fireworks, those Japanese do. So much so, that they pack the streets over their maximum capacity to just get a view of the fireworks!

Remember when I said there were a lot more people than usual?

Things like this extended back very far in  all directions.

Despite the crowds, it was a great thing to see. And what a way to spend your first night downtown in a new city! The other JETs I met up to visit downtown with and I were all getting pretty hungry at this point, so we decided to find a place to eat a little before the end of the fireworks in hopes of beating the crowds. After a lot of searching (it's hard to find something everyone likes for ten people), we settled on an okonomiyaki restaurant. If you are like me and you are thinking "what the heck is okonomiyaki?" the easiest way to describe it is a Japanese pancake. Except instead of sprucing up the batter with chocolate chips or blueberries, you toss in meat and veggies. Oh, and you have to cook it yourself.

Behold! Okonomiyaki!

And it actually wasn't that bad! Cooking it yourself was a lot of fun, and the tastes all mingled together wonderfully. It's not my favourite food here, but I won't hesitate to go back if offered! Astute viewers of the above photo would have also noticed a great deal of foam or "head" on our beverages. I think now is a good time to mention that the art of pouring beer has yet to take off in Japan. Servers will pour your beer directly into the cup, smiling as the drink quickly becomes half foam, and wonder if foreigners' faces' always look that downtrodden. 

I think we'll end my Sendai update here. I have a lot more pictures and experiences to share, but here seems as good a place as any to break. It has yet to really dawn on me that I'll be spending a year living here, but I definitely got lucky when I was assigned to live in Sendai!

As always, you can view the entire album for today's post here.

See you all at my next update!