As my foreign trips began to slow down (if not stop all together!) about five years ago I started to look closer to home for quenching my wanderlust travel thirst. The Tōhoku  region in the north of Japan was an area I was interested in so I made plans for a short trip to Fukushima and Miyagi Prefectures.

A city located in Fukushima on day one was my first destination, and getting there took a while as I chose to do it by local trains which took just under eight hours! Sōma  Hyakkushaku Kannon is an earth-dug carving. It’s 27 metres tall and was damaged a bit during the 2011 Tōhoku earthquake and tsunami. Money is still being raised to help complete the pedestal and take it to 37 metres in height thus making it Japan’s biggest polished statue of buddha to be dug by hand! Rather impressively it was all done by one man over 33 years but he sadly didn’t live long enough to finish it. More details here

37 kilometres north of there is Iwanuma which is home to Takekoma Shrine; the second oldest Inari shrine in Japan behind Fushimi Inari Shrine in Kyoto with a long history dating back to its foundation in 842 A.D. It is regarded as one of Japan’s three main Inari shrines but the third one (after Fushimi Inari and Toyokawa Inari in Aichi) often depends on regional pride of the person speaking! More details here

Later that evening in Sendai I met up with a friend for happy hour at the so-called British chain pub called Hub. On the following night I went by myself to the other two to complete the not-so-essential Sendai Hub trilogy. Not the best way of getting to know the local culture!!

My accommodation for my two nights in Sendai was a capsule hotel called Nine Hours Sendai which was fine and gave me all that I needed really.

Day two began with a trip to see the 15 metre buddha statue at Bukkoku-ji Temple (Ōtakehara 49-1 Imozawa, Aoba-Ku) which overlooks a cemetery, and there’s actually a cable car-like train thing called Nam Nam Issue which is supposedly very rare in Japan for such a situation. Of course it’s there to assist people in reaching the buddha from the cemetery but as I was the only person to be seen anywhere I have no idea if it was even working! More details here

Matushima Bay was next and my main destination for the day. Matsushima-kaigan station is just 40 minutes east of Sendai Station and I arrived there mid-morning, collected a map and headed straight to the coast to check out Godaido Temple.

This charming temple is located on an island connected by some bright red foot-bridges. It’s the only thing on the island and there certainly isn’t any room for anything else. The views from the island were good and the wooden temple hall itself looked very nice but the beauty of this sight (other than it being free!) basically is the fact that it’s atop a huge rock jutting out of the sea. More details here

Matsushima Castle Tourist Hotel was just over the road from there and the sight that actually brought Matsushima to my attention. It stands on a small hill in the hotel district but it’s exterior obviously makes it look like a castle town.

Zuiganji temple caves were originally used for memorial services and as a cinerarium to house the ashes of the deceased. The making of these caves dates back to the Kamakura period (1192-1333) and they continued to use them until the Edo period (1603-1867). Sadly it’s not possible to go inside them but I was very glad that I got to see them and I returned to Sendai more than happy with the couple of hours I spent in Matsushima.

There was just about enough time to take a detour to Narita-san Sendai Bunin (33-2 Aramaki Aoba, Aoba-Ku) as I really wanted to see the huge statue located at the back of it. Sadly, it was closed that day (and the next one too) but in a way I felt quite relieved that I could still see it in part from the outside.

I decided to call it a day after that as I was tired but around Sendai Station I saw a shop sign that I had heard about. I have no idea what kind of shop “Sperm” is though!

It was time to head back south on day three to Fukushima Prefecture. The first port of call a privately owned cone-shaped hill with a resemblance to Mount Fuji. It was located in the middle of nowhere and is all the work of one man who I got to meet.

He used to live and work in Shizuoka and fell in love with the mountain that he saw every day. He longed to see Fuji-San when he returned to Fukushima so spent 18 months building this seven metre high mound in his garden. The “snow” is made of cement and shadows have been drawn to make it look three-dimensional. He very kindly guided me round the “mountain” from inside his garden and showed me the best angles including it’s reflection in the pond in front of it. More details here

Next was Funehiki Station where there was a Spider-man on the side of a building somewhere alongside a load of other figures made of cement. After a wrong turn, and a downpour I eventually found it when I had pretty much given up on it. More details here

That still wasn’t it for my time in Tohoku as I went to Miharu station near Koriyama to see what looks like a big kannon statue on a slanted deck. This 13 metre statue is tucked away in a tight space behind a hot spring resort hotel and is called Yawaragi Jibo Kannon (224 Baba, Miharumachi, Tamura-Gun).

This three day adventure was a packed trip, and it whetted my appetite for the region so much that I returned just over a month later to visit some other interesting and quirky little places.

Click here to read ‘A Trio Of Top Sights In The Aizu Wakamatsu Region’

Click here to read ’24 hours In Sendai’

Click here to read ‘On The Fox Trail……At Zao Fox Village (Miyagi)’

Click here to read ‘Hiking In Fukushima Pt I: Jyododaira’