Chasing Cherry Blossoms in Sendai: A 3-Day Spring Adventure

After visiting Kyoto in Spring of 2023 to catch cherry blossoms, I knew this year I needed to find less touristic places to truly appreciate sakura and do a proper hanami. The good thing of cherry blossoms is that they start in the south of Japan, and as the weather gets warmer, they continue blooming up north.

In the year 2024, surprisingly, they bloomed later than usual due to the last-minute cold weather that we had end of March, so it was just in time during the second week of April, when I had two friends from Hong Kong visiting, that we had planned to go to Sendai in Miyagi Prefecture.

Sendai city itself is often overlooked, as truth be told, I also did not it particularly pretty or interesting, but there are, as expected of Japan, always places to find, and more so when it comes to cherry blossoms. So we embarked on a 3-day trip, us 3 friends.

Transport

The easiest way to reach Sendai is without a doubt by shinkansen. It takes only 1.30 hours from Shinjuku, taking the Tohoku Shinkansen from Omiya station. It does cost about 11000 yen though for each way.

An alternative, and what I did myself, was to take a bus. And you don't even need to take an overnight bus! It takes 4 hours on express Willer Express buses. Depending on the season, it can cost as little as 3000 yen. And honestly? If you don't mind getting up early I 100% recommend it as it really is not such as long as you may think.

For me, I took the 7.30 AM bus from Shinjuku Expressway Bus terminal and was at Sendai bus station by 11.30 AM. For the return bus, I took it at 5 PM arriving by 9-9.30 PM, so I was able to enjoy the 3 almost full days. My friends chose to take the shinkansen as they were only visiting for a few days.

Day 1: Matsushima Bay

We were spending 2 nights at Of Hotel, about 10 minutes walk north from Sendai station. It was a room for 3, very cozy and convenient. After leaving our backpacks, we walked a bit along the main shopping street to eat some quick lunch. As weather was due to be good - or more so than the other days- we took the train to Matsushima to spend our afternoon.

Matsushima Bay is a scenic inlet of Miyagi Prefecture, facing the Pacific Ocean, 30 minutes from Sendai station, with over 200 small islands.

We got off at Matsushimakaigan station, the most centric one. The coast is just 10 minutes away, and so we walked along Togetsukyo bridge first, a red bridge that goes to a smaller mini-island, and then walked north along the coast to reach the town.

There are several temples and shrines like Zuigan-ji temple. Walking along the old town there were many traditional restaurants and accomodation too.

Our main interest was however on the sightseeing cruise. There are different companies but most ride for about 50 minutes and cost between 1000-1500 yen, see here an example. You can visit the smaller islands up close.

Afterwards we hiked up to Saigyo Modoshi no Matsu Park, hoping to see some sakura, but it seemed to be early still. Even so, the viewpoint was worth it.

By 6.30 PM we returned back to Sendai, had some beef tongue, a specialty of the region, although I was not too keen.

Day 2: Cherry blossoms to the fullest

This was definitely the highlight of the trip. We were worried it would rain but it was sunny and quite warm.

We got the Sendai Area Pass for 1 day at the JR office of the station. It costs 1320 yen for one day, 2720 yen for two days. It covers most transport around Sendai area.

Taking the Tohoku Shinkansen, it took 30 minutes to reach Funaoka station, that is the entry point to Hitome Senbonzakura.

Hitome Senbonzakura, or "View of a Thousand Cherry Trees", is a famous cherry blossom viewing spot along the Shiroishi River. It stretches for about 8 kilometers along the Shiroishi River, from Ogawara Town to Shibata Town. Over 1,200 cherry trees, some over 90 years old, form a stunning "sakura tunnel" along the riverbank.

There is a bridge that crosses that railway that is the main viewpoint of the area. Everybody waits for the trains to pass, as it is beautiful to see them next to the cherry trees.

I was really surprised considering the previous day we hardly saw any sakura, and I can't say without a doubt it is my favorite sakura spot in Japan now.

We walked along the park, also appreciating other flowers, that made the scenery even prettier with the combination of pink, yellow, blue and more. There were some stalls were we also grabbed food, including a sakura ice cream!

In the afternoon we moved to Funaoka Castle Ruins Park. There is a super cute cable car that slowly moves along the sakura trees. While the queue was rather long, it was moving relatively fast, we only waited about 20 minutes.

I do recommend only taking it to go up though, and walk back. From the peak we could appreciate even more sakura, as well as an odd-looking Buddha. I think in total we spent about 5 hours in Hitome Senbonzakura area.

Around 4 PM we took the train to Shiroishi castle, also on Tohoku Shinkansen. It is only 15 minutes by train, then walking 15 minutes to the castle. While I did not find it particularly impressive, considering others like Matsumoto or Himeji prettier, the sakura surrounding it made it worthwhile.

Day 3: Exploring Sendai city

It was raining heavily this last day. While sad, at least we were happy we got to have 2 good days. As mentioned initially, I don't think just visiting Sendai city is worth it, but if you have a morning or afternoon, there are a few things to do. The Loople Sendai bus, that is the main sightseeing bus, goes to most attractions, and is good to take the 630-yen day pass for unlimited bus rides.

The first place we visited was Aoba Castle Honmaru Hall. It is a place to learn about the history of Sendai Castle and its founder, Masamune Date. There is also a shrine and viewpoint of the city. Due to the rain though we did not spend too much time.

From there my friends chose to return back to Tokyo as they had to prepare for their flight, and I went to Zuihoden Mausoleum (570 yen access). It houses the graves of Masamune Date and other tombs. I found it quite different to other religious sites I had been, with particular details, reminding me a bit to Nikko temples.

It was time for me to take the bus at 5 PM, but there are also other places you can see like Osaki Hachiman Shrine, Tsutsujigaoka park for sakura, or the Sendai Dai Kannon monument.

Certainly though, it was the cherry blossoms that made the trip.