Miyagi Hidden Gems
Sendai is the only city in Tohoku with a million people, and it was designed to be a city from the start: Date Masamune laid it out around his castle in the early 1600s with unusually wide avenues, and the zelkova trees later planted along Jozenji-dori are why it is called the city of trees. That planning is what makes Miyagi work as a base — you can sleep somewhere with a proper restaurant scene and still be at the coast in half an hour. Matsushima Bay, a scatter of a couple of hundred pine-topped islets, sits on that half-hour line, and the islands absorbed enough of the 2011 wave that the town behind them came through comparatively intact. Further north the Sanriku coast did not, and the raised ground and new seawalls are visible from the train. Inland the land climbs to Naruko, a gorge and hot-spring town where several distinct kinds of spring water surface within a few kilometres.
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Climate & Best Season
Milder than the rest of Tohoku thanks to the Pacific; comfortable summers, moderate snow. Year-round, with a peak in early August.
Famous For (Food)
- Gyutan (grilled beef tongue)
- Matsushima oysters
- Zunda (edamame) sweets
- Sasa-kamaboko
Signature Sights
- Matsushima Bay
- Zuihoden mausoleum
- Naruko onsen gorge
- Sendai Tanabata Festival
When to Go
Miyagi is the mildest part of Tohoku because the Ou mountains take the Sea of Japan snow before it arrives. Sendai sees some snow but not much, and January highs sit around 5°C. Summers are warm rather than punishing, in the high 20s. The Tanabata festival takes over central Sendai on August 6–8 and is the single busiest date of the year. Naruko gorge colours in late October, a fortnight ahead of the lowlands. Oysters run October to March. The snow-covered trees on Zao form in February, best reached from the Yamagata side of the border.
Getting Around
Sendai is the easiest place in Tohoku to reach: the Tohoku Shinkansen puts it about an hour and a half from Tokyo, and Sendai Airport is joined to the station by a 25-minute rail link. Local JR lines then do most of the work — the Senseki line reaches Matsushima-Kaigan in around 40 minutes, and the Tohoku Main Line and Rikuu East line cover Shiroishi and Naruko. This is one of the few Tohoku prefectures where a standard itinerary needs no car at all. You will want one for the Zao Echo Line, the Kurikoma highlands and the smaller Sanriku ports, and the Zao mountain road is shut by snow from November into April.
Local Food
Gyutan, thick-cut beef tongue grilled over charcoal, was invented in postwar Sendai and is still served as a set with barley rice and oxtail soup. Matsushima and Ishinomaki supply oysters from October to March, eaten grilled in shacks along the bay. Zunda is mashed young edamame, lightly sweetened, and it goes into everything from mochi to milkshakes. Sasa-kamaboko, the leaf-shaped fish cake sold in every station, began as a way of using up surplus flatfish in the Meiji period.
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