Obscure Japanese Urban Goodness Part II - Sendai

[urbanflyer]

Sendai's another gorgeous Japanese city that needs some lovin'. It's the capital of Miyagi prefecture and is home to a million folks who brave the Tohoku winter.

The tour begins at JR Sendai station

http://static.flickr.com/118/315651592_db96460437_b.jpg

http://static.flickr.com/36/104488620_058dbc45d0_b.jpg

It would appear one never has to wait for a taxi there...

http://static.flickr.com/30/35547291_c287d84cc9_b.jpg

downtown seems the logical place to go next

http://static.flickr.com/68/222571416_09f4a17daa_o.jpg

http://static.flickr.com/105/285575759_d8fadc54e7_o.jpg

http://static.flickr.com/87/235949111_78612c9cc5_o.jpg

http://static.flickr.com/45/155445000_7fda938f56_o.jpg

not a bad alley

http://static.flickr.com/55/139502045_2c0e49c5c8_o.jpg

downtown by night

http://static.flickr.com/45/141809603_bee0cfb70e_b.jpg

Sendai's known for being a city of trees though you wouldn't know it from here...

http://static.flickr.com/29/53397228_9af52638ed_o.jpg

http://static.flickr.com/85/225296856_b0072dd76f_o.jpg

quaint outer neighborhoods

http://static.flickr.com/63/155450493_1bf4260bbe_o.jpg

Again, thanks for coming, do come on a Japanese adventure again!

http://static.flickr.com/34/113555570_65e7b25b4d_o.jpg

[JManc]

i love japan.

[PuyoPiyo]

^<3 Japan 2 ^-^

[Lawson]

Sendai is one of my favorite cities in Japan... I love the tree-lined streets. There are some great photos of the city here. (http://www.geocities.co.jp/SilkRoad-Oasis/1920/syasinkan.htm)

[MayorOfChicago]

Japan will never cease to amaze me. Imagine if their economy had kept chugging along as much as it was in the 70's and 80's during the past 15 years.

[urbanflyer]

^
If that were the case I'd be living Blade Runner daily ;)

[blade_bltz]

thanks for the pics. i've never been to sendai, but for some reason it's always seemed appealing to me. now i know why.

itsukani ne, sendai ni ikitaina!

[urbanflyer]

Thread update: two recent aerials of central Sendai

http://photoimg.enjoyjapan.naver.com/view/enjoybbs/viewphoto/ptravel/21000/20060204113905783756235200.jpg

http://photoimg.enjoyjapan.naver.com/view/enjoybbs/viewphoto/ptravel/21000/20060204113905784566298500.jpg

[Giroppon]

Sendai is one of my favorite city, which is called forest capital

http://photoimg.enjoyjapan.naver.com/view/enjoybbs/viewphoto/pvillage/37000/20060727115398564594334800.jpg
http://photoimg.enjoyjapan.naver.com/view/enjoybbs/viewphoto/pvillage/35000/20060422114568793026437500.jpg
http://photoimg.enjoyjapan.naver.com/view/enjoybbs/viewphoto/pvillage/35000/20060422114568793607742200.jpg
http://www.sendaiphoto.com/aoba/sjd_jo2bankosa-w.JPG
http://www.sendaiphoto.com/wakabayashi/ors_shijokosa-w.JPG
http://photoimg.enjoyjapan.naver.com/view/enjoybbs/viewphoto/pvillage/41000/20070111116852679889383900.jpg
http://photoimg.enjoyjapan.naver.com/view/enjoybbs/viewphoto/ptravel/23000/20060430114640103913467500.jpg
http://sendaipics.fc2web.com/jyouzenji2.jpg
http://sendaipics.fc2web.com/jyouzenji6.jpg

[Baiyoke]

Sendai is full of trees! My god! wish Bangkok could be like that one day!

[Ex-Ithacan]

Glad this one came back to life, I missed it the first go-round. I'm ashamed to admit I don't remember ever hearing about this city before (how could I not know about a city with a million people?). Very dense - no surprise, and quite attractive as well. I was wondering about the night shot of downtown: what is the arcade looking cover to the left of ecnter that seems to run on for quite a ways?

Thanks for the pics urbf (and Giroppon). :tup:

[J Church]

^ Same here.

How cold are the winters?

[bc2mb]

beautiful.. looks very clean too.

[Bergenser]

Haven't haerd about Sendai before, but my first impession is good! :tup:

[urbanflyer]

ex, the arcade cover you can also see in pictures 5 and 6. it's a common feature in japanese cities to have a shopping arcade or two that are covered to allow shopping no matter what the elements are doing. kind of like the indoor/outdoor mall you'd find in north america, only these continue for several blocks.

Sendai is pretty cold church. Winter temps average below zero and they get decent snowfall. Today it's -8C there.

There are two other threads with the same title on Kagoshima and Hakodate.

http://forum.skyscraperpage.com/showthread.php?t=121976

http://forum.skyscraperpage.com/showthread.php?t=124038

[Ex-Ithacan]

Thanks for the info urbf.

[Wheelingman04]

Those hills and mountains add to the beauty of the city.

[ArchMadness]

Those street trees are incredible. I'd like to see some snow scenes.

[JuanCarlos]

I love Japanese cities, and of course Sendai isn't the exception. :yes: Great pics.

[James Bond Agent 007]

Damn, I never even heard of this city until I clicked on this link. Goes to show what I'd been missing!

[Shawn]

Here are some more great pics of this green city:

http://www.geocities.co.jp/SilkRoad-Oasis/1920/ik.jpg

http://www.geocities.co.jp/SilkRoad-Oasis/1920/izumityuou.jpg

http://sendaipics.fc2web.com/aoba2.jpg

http://sendaipics.fc2web.com/hirosedori6.jpg

http://www.geocities.co.jp/SilkRoad-Oasis/1920/kt4.jpg

http://www.geocities.co.jp/SilkRoad-Oasis/1920/ekimae.jpg
To go along with Urbie's earlier pic of the army of taxis outside Sendai Station、which serviced 113,000 people per workday in 2005 according to the Japanese-language Wikipedia.

http://www.geocities.co.jp/SilkRoad-Oasis/1920/aerhokutou.jpg

http://www.geocities.co.jp/SilkRoad-Oasis/1920/aerhokusei.jpg

http://www.geocities.co.jp/SilkRoad-Oasis/1920/hirosegawa1.jpg

Ex-Ith, here's some ground-level shots of that long mall (you'll find malls like these in every major and most minor cities in Japan):

http://sendaipics.fc2web.com/vlandome2.jpg

http://sendaipics.fc2web.com/vlandome1.jpg

http://sendaipics.fc2web.com/hapina2.jpg

http://sendaipics.fc2web.com/clis2.jpg


And a nice to way to round things up:

http://www.geocities.co.jp/SilkRoad-Oasis/1920/aobayamapano0406.jpg

EDIT: a bunch of the pics arent showing up, I forgot that Geocities sucks.

[LMich]

Tours of even the smaller Japanese cities always makes me depressed and jealous. :) This one is no exception, and I'd never heard of it before, either.

Hey, what's the closest thing you've got to a large rustbelt city over that way, Urb?

[Shawn]

Kawasaki is a spitting image of Newark-Jersey City and environs, right down to the steel and petrol processing plants (and the accompanying smell) and its location "across the River" from Tokyo. My friend Ryoko who grew up in Teaneck, NJ refers to Kawasaki and northern Yokohama as "The Jersey Turnpike."

The closest you will find to Rustbelt cities are the Sea of Japan mini-cities like Niigata, Akita and Aomori. The Sea of Japan-side of the country has lagged behind the Pacific Coast in terms of development and job retention. Most of these cities are losing population to Tokyo, Yokohama, Fukuoka and the booming Kyoto suburbs in Shiga Prefecture.

One exception to this rule is Kita-Kyushu, a city of a million people less than 30 minutes north of Fukuoka. It is a dirty-industry hub and frankly is uglier than some of those faceless Chinese cities whose skylines are obscured by yellow haze. I'll try to dig up some pics of Kita-Kyushu. Trivia: Kokura (one of Kita-Kyushu's wards) was the primary target of the nuclear weapon Fat Man on August 9, 1945. Major Charles Sweeney had orders to drop the bomb visually, but the city was obscured by clouds. Hence Nagasaki, the secondary target, was where the bomb was dropped. The expression "Kokura's luck" thereafter became common in Japan to refer to occasions when someone avoids something unpleasant without his knowledge.

[Ex-Ithacan]

Thanks for the additional pics Shawn.

[KevinFromTexas]

Awesome. That tree canopy is somekthing else, like a tunnel.

[delts145]

:tup: :tup: Tree canopies are among my favorite things on earth. Thanks for this great thread.