OBAN DESU!!

And that's good evening in Tohoku-ben or the local Tohoku dialect :D Check that out on Wikipedia; search for Yamagata dialect..

Anyways more to the point, its been a long and arduous day today but let me start from the top at Changi Airport..

Jaded, Changi Airport Terminal 2

Singapore 28/3.5 D

We had a bit of time after the check-in so I was lazing around Starbucks, filling in all the miscellaneous forms..

Plane, Changi Airport Terminal 2

Singapore. 90/2 D3

And that's the plane we sat to Narita, ANA's Boeing 767-300, the newly refurbished model that flies the Singapore-Tokyo route. It's a pretty nice set up inside the plane.. nice large LCD screen, modern looking seats, good choice of refreshments.. But if anything, they really need to rethink the seats..

You see, the issue with their "modern" seats is that the back doesn't recline.. So what happens when you press the recline button? The seat pan slides out, forcing you to "slouch" to sleep. And as to the sleeping experience, well, I think a fellow teammate managed to put it very succinctly, "If there is a chair that is best suited for studying, it would be the new ANA seat.." That said, that should not stop you from flying to Japan.. There are always other airlines and if you plan to go on a budget, consider AirAsia which flies to Haneda from Kuala Lumpur.

Right after landing; from a sleepless night at that, we headed straight for our tour bus bound for Sendai.. That must be the perfect recipe for motion sickness because for the entire 8 hours on the bus, it was utter misery and I was not the only one..

However, things got better once we managed to catch 40 winks on the bus and arrived at Sendai. Our first stop was to take part in a mini tanabata decoration workshop which was held at the Fujisaki Departmental Store.

Chuo-dori, Entrance to Chuo-dori shopping street

Sendai, Miyagi, Japan. 28/3.5 D3

Fujisaki Dept. Store

Sendai, Miyagi, Japan. 28/3.5 D3

Our sensei teaching us how to make a mini kinchaku or purse for the festival

Stick some confusingly folded paper onto another pretty piece of paper using double sided tape

Then stick on the top half and before that add the string in

So far so good.. Till you try to stuff it up with puffed paper..

Now it just looks like an oversized paper gyoza-.-...

Sensei making her rounds for QC inspection.. She's 78 by the way.. She says the secret is not to eat meat.. Just fish.. I suppose she means sashimi :D
I would stay young and healthy too if i ate sashimi everyday :D

Sensei explaining the various kinds of decorations they will be putting up.. these are mini versions, the ones on the street will be XXXL versions..
The pretty lass on the right is Toshimi-san, she's majoring in English at some university in Sendai.. I can't recall the muzukashii name..
The pretty lass on the left however, is our team leader, JAL scholar and self proclaimed UFO catcher expert ^^

Truck loads of prepared decorations to be hanged up along the streets

Different kinds of decorations, I'm sure Wikipedia will have a write up on this ;)

After that we headed down for a welcome party cum buffet dinner which was darn awesome.. They served like grilled uni, curry rice, smoked salmon, etc... I won't concentrate too much on these kind of events, after all they do not serve to promote Tohoku..

Ahh!! but before dinner, we had a speech by Prof. Kawamura from a local university and spoke on his experiences as a volunteer during the recent disaster and how he felt about the whole event. If there was one thing that I remember most from his speech was that he contrasted his experience as a relief worker back in the '80s during the Thai-Cambodian conflict and the recent earthquake, relating that in both cases that the survivors were very similar in both cases.

Prof. Kawamura

Mr. Abe from the Tohoku Tourism Board spoke on how the infrastructure in the region has already been completely restored, especially in the tourist areas. His speech was less emotional and more factual, presenting facts and dates; nevertheless useful for the potential tourist.

Mr. Abe

During dinner, we were told that one of the reasons why JNTO Singapore came up with this plan to send us to Tohoku was because many local tour agencies refused to put out advertisements or push tour plans to Tohoku, citing various concerns.. Of course JNTO knew better, but it had to find a way to convince them.. Heh, even Singapore Tourism Board sponsored the media (there was a cameraman from Channel News Asia) to tag along with us to help increase the media coverage..

But you might wonder, has things really improved? Might it not be just plain PR talk? Well, perhaps you should see for yourself..

Junction at Chuo-dori

Roadsigns

Sendai Station. While walking through the streets, it still looks the same; but strangely, felt rather different.. Somehow, my gut was telling me that the floor plan had change slightly.. Certain areas I saw somehow didn't piece with my memories from 2009

Junction near Sendai Station

JAL City Hotel, My favorite western hotel in Japan. Serves great breakfast!! Highly recommended.
Currently we're staying at the ANA Holiday Inn.. Its very good here too, with really clean rooms and toilets.. We'll have to see about the breakfast tomorrow morning.. haha
Update: Ok.. breakfast was excellent.. The Okayu/porridge was the best I've ever eaten.. and its near Yodobashi to boot..

Sendai Central 2011, Main street in front of Sendai Station

Sendai, Miyagi, Japan. 28/3.5 D3

Looks familiar? Well, check my previous post.. from the same identical spot.. except this time I'm using a different lens, hence the different angle.. but its pretty identical.. except you can see signs of repairs on the bridge I was standing on and the underground entrance to the subway nearby was closed..