1 / 6Shiogama ShrinePhoto: nnh / Public domain
Tap a photo to see it large. 6 photographs, every one credited.
The head shrine of the region, up 202 stone steps on a hill over the harbour, with a vermilion gate and a view of the bay. Free; the small museum is closed on Thursdays.
Shiogama Shrine is the first shrine of Mutsu province, the whole of northern Honshu in the old administration, and the town is named after it. Its god is said to have taught people to make salt from seawater, which the town still re-enacts every July.
Both pins on one map, so the distance is a fact rather than a feeling.
Counted from the moment you step off the gangway. The hour before all-aboard is not in this bar; it is already set aside.
30 minutes each way is the honest figure for taxi + train ~30 min, not the optimistic one. If your ship is late, cut the 1 hr 30 min in the middle. Never cut the hour at the end.
Each one is a finished day we have walked and timed, with this stop in it. Read the route rather than assembling it yourself.
Each of these still lands you back aboard with the hour to spare.
4 hr 30 min for bothA large modern aquarium beside the port, built around the Sanriku coast’s own sea, with a dolphin and sea-lion show.
See the detail → 5 hr for bothBuy rice at one stall and slices of tuna and whatever else looks good at the others.
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5 hr for bothThick-cut beef tongue grilled over charcoal, with barley rice and oxtail soup: Sendai’s own dish since the late 1940s.
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