Archive for 'Sendai' Category

Hokkaido Shinkansen(Bullet Train) launched

JR Hokakido and East Japan launched the Hokkaido Shinkansen(/Hokkaido Bullet Trains) services on this Mar.26. And with this, Alll the four main lands of Japan are now directly connected by the Bullet Train services.  (http://hokkaido-shinkansen.com/)(http://www2.jrhokkaido.co.jp/global/index.html)

The bullet train services between Tokyo and Shin-aomori(/new Aomorri, in Aomori prefecture in Tohoku region in the mainland) launced in 2010, and now the new services between Shin-aomori and Shin-hakodatehokuto started, which finally connected the mainland and Hokkaido island.  With this completeion,  Tokyo to Shin-hakodatehokuto takes now 4 hours and 2 minutes at fastest (used to take about 5 hours and 30 minutes), and Shin-aomori to Shin-hakodatehokuto one hour and one minute at fastest(used to take about one hour and 50 minutes) . 10 round travels are provided  between Tokyo and Shin-hakodatehokuto  and  one round travel between Sendai and Shin-hakodatehokuto by “Hayabusa”( a nickname of a type of the new trains) a day and one round travel between Morioka and Shin-hakodatehokuto, and one round travel between Shin-aomori and Shin-hakodatehokuto by “Hayate” a day as well.

“Hyakudan Hina-matsuri” at Meguro-gajoen

Lots of events related to Hina-matsui (Girls’ Day’s festivals) were held nationwide in Japan on the March 3rd, the Girls’ Day.  One of the popular events was  the “Hyakudan Hina-matsuri”(/ hina doll decoration event on one hundred stairs ) at Meguro-gajoen in Tokyo (Jan.22-Mar.6).(http://www.megurogajoen.co.jp/event/hinamaturi/)

This year, for the first time  traditional Hinadolls from three prefectures in Tohoku region, namely,Iwate,Miyagi,and Fukushima were decorated and exhibited.

 

Hiyoridai Big Bridge finally completed 49 years since the launch

Hiyoridai Big Bridge was finally completed 49 years after the lauch of its project on this Oct.17th.

The bridge is 290m long and connects Yashirominami and Hiyoridai in Tashiro-ku, Sendai City, Miyagi pref. for the traffic convenineces to the area of  Yagiyama Dobutsu Koen station (Yagiyama Zoo station) .  The city mayor Okuyama says, “The bridge finished upon the grand opening of the Tozai Line, and we expect people to use the service for long from now on.”.  Some citizens passed the bridge in the opening ceremoy and took a walk there.

 

 

Hokkaido Shinkansen’s grand opening next March

JR Hokkaido and JR East Japan jointly announced on Sep. 16 that  they were going to launch the remarkable new services of  the Hokkaido Shinkansen (The Bullet Train services in Hokkaido )  on March 26th 2016.

The hisotorically new services of the Hokkaido Shinkansen will provide totaly 13 round-trips of  “Hayabusa”and “Hayate” cars between Tokyo and Shin-hakodatehokuto (about 146km) on a daily basis.  10 out of them will be for the full distance and one for Sendai station-Shin-hakodatehokuto station, one for Morioka station- Shin-hakodatehokuto, and one for Shin-aomori station- Shin-hakodatehokuto station. The “E5 series” of JR East and the “H5 series” of JR Hokkaido will be used as the cars of the new lines.   The will include economy classes , Green Cars’ and the Grand-Place seats.

The 3rd WCDRR was held in Sendai Miyagi Pref.

“The Sendai Committee UN World Conference on Disaster Risk Reduction” was held Mar.14-18 in Sendai, the capital of Miyagi Pref. ,which is one of the major damaged areas of  the Great east Japan earthquake on 3.11 2011. (http://www.bosai-sendai.jp/en/)

The conference resolved a new policy of “Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction 2015-2030” to strengthen international cooperation systems.  The first (in Yokoham in 1994) and the second conference(in Kobe in 2005) were also held in Japan, which may imply that Japan is a significant “key contry” when it comes to considering disaster-prevention policies in a huge scope of international visions.    Sendai is not only the capital of  Miyagi but also the economic center of Tohoku region (Aomori, Akita,Iwate,Yamagata,Fukushima,and Miyagi) and one of the three major Tohoku festivals “Tanabata festival”(/Star festival) in held on July 7th every year which is quite popular.  At the 3.11 tragedy, Sendai was damaged especially its airport was, but now has miraculously recovered. At the conference the spirit and concept of “Omotenashi in Tohoku” (the warm Japanese style hospitality in the northeast region ) was referred to as well.

 

Visit Japan Travel Mart and JATA Toursim EXPO Japan 2014

Two huge international travel marts were held at Tokyo Bigsight in Tokyo. One was “Visit Japan Travel Mart 2014″(Sep.24-26)(http://www.vjtm.jp/) and the other was “JATA Toursim EXPO Japan2014″(Sep.25-28)(http://t-expo.jp/en/index.html).  

More than 310 foriegn buyers and about 390 Japanese sellers joined VJTM2014 and had passionate exchanges of information and ideas and hosted busines seccions.  Buyers from Asian countries were especially a lot and about the half of the Japanese sellers were municipalities or relating associations of such local governments.

On the other hand,  a lot of domestic and foreign sellers and buysers joined  JATA Tourism EXPO Japan 2014. Such participants were embassies, tourism bureaus, travel agents, food companies, municipalities, railroads, airlines, hotels. universities, guide associations and so forth.  The main targets were end users of travel services and a lot of  lay Japanese people visited there and the total number was 157,589.  Upon the opening of the event, an ward ceremony  of  good  services and efforts of related promotions was hosted and the Best Tourism Award was given to The Tourism Authority of Thailand and Embassy awards were for  Thailand and Mexico, the best transporatation award was for Japan Railways East, the domestic inbound award was for  the tourism department of Tokyo Metropolis, the publicity award was for a TV show of CXTV, and the chairperson special award was for Okinawa Convention Bureau. (http://t-expo.jp/en/program/cms.html)   I personally visited the two big events and collected a lot of interesting information and exchanged ideas with the participants, some of whom were my friends or those I sometimes work with. I enjoyed the delicious food provided by tourism- related restaurants and local specialities and impressed by the greatly enthusiastic atmosphere of energies of the expos as well.

The 2 nd Tohoku Rokkon Festival being held

The 2nd “Tohoku Rokkon Festival”(/東北六魂際) is being held May 26th-27th in Morioka City, the capital of Iwate Pref. ,which is one of the Tohoku prefectures.http://www.rokkon.jp/index_en.html

As I wrote last year (http://www.tenkai-japan.com/2011/07/18/tohoku-rokkon-festival-being-held/) , the first one of  this special festival started being held last year in order to console and encourage sufferers of the 3.11 East Japan disaster and to  raise morale and energy of people to stick together to overcome the damages of the ordeal and to rebuild the damaged areas.  This year  again, a lot of visitors, as well as the dancers there, are enjoying the splendid and exciting joint exposure of the six major Tohoku festivals, their zeal,and passion.   So many people are gaining power and vitality to keep going on.

 

One Year Anniversary of 3.11 DISASTER

3.11; the unforgettable day has come again… March 11th 2011 was the most tragic day for Japan in its postwar history.  There are a lot of TV programs featuring  the one year anniversary of the national tragedy and  many memorial rituals and ceremonies to commmorate it are hosted alL over Japan and even some foreign countries, such as France, US, and others.

And now,  3.11 2012, a  special one year  annversary and  commemorative ceremony  for the souls of the victims of the worst disaster in Tohoku and East Japan at The National Theater in Chiyoda ward where The Imperial Palace is located in Tokyo.

 

Our emperor, empress, each head of the three branches of  the government including  Prime Minister Noda,and about 1,200  survival family members from Miyagi, Fukushima, and Iwate attended this special memorial ceremony.

The emperor, to whom this was the first official activity since discharged from the hospital after having undergone a bypass heart surgery,  gave a remark, saying,”I do expect all of our people keep making constant efforts to sympathize with the sufferers in order to improve the circumstances of the damaged areas and ” , extending deep condolences to the sufferers and areas.

Noda said, “I shall complete reconstructing damaged areas asap. I will give utmost supports to strife of those who are trying to restore their home lands. Our strife with the nuclear plants are still going on, and I shall restore Fukushima whatever it may takes.”

Some survival family member says, “Considering the chagrin and despair of the victims and huge grieves of the breaved families, i am entirely speechless.”   Even young children who are sufferers  participated in the solem ceremony.

Reconstruction Agency inaugurated

Reconstruction Agency(/Fukkoucho, 復興庁)  came into being to boost the rebuilding activities from the aftermath of 3.11 disaster on this Feb.10th. http://www.reconstruction.go.jp/ The agency’s duration is planned to be 10 years and will be over at the end of March 2021.  The post of  the first  Reconstruction Minister was assumed by Tatsuo Hirano, an ex- Minister of State for Disaster Management.

The agency is directly controlled by Prime Minister and the Minister of  Reconstruction is in charge of  managing the total operations to assist the Prime Minister.  The agency ‘s  “Main Office” is in Tokyo,  a “Reconstruction Bureau” and a “Branch Office” is set in  Iwate, Miyagi, and Fukushima respectively,and an “Office” is set in Hachinohe City Aomori and Mito City Ibaraki respectively. The above prefectures and cities are all damaged areas of the 3.11.  The agency is in charge of  planning reconstruction strategies, approving the budgets for rebuildings, disgnating Reconstruction Special Zones, and so forth. Read the rest of this entry »

Cosplayers’ from abroad visit earthquake-hit Sendai

Cosplayers from Japan and abroad who won an Internet popularity contest visited Sendai to help promote the city’s ongoing recovery from the March 11 earthquake and tsunami.

The four women from Japan, South Korea, China and Thailand posed for photos at the site of former Sendai Castle with members of “Datebushoutai,” a local tourism promotion group whose members dress as warriors or warlords. Read the rest of this entry »

20,000 fireworks set off in the earthquake- and tsunami- damaged areas in Tohoku

   Totally 20,000 fireworks were shot off  all together at  the 10 venues of  the special fireworks displays of  commemorating the fifth month anniversary and consoling the souls of  the casualties from the earthquake and tsunami disasters on this March 11th in three prefectures of  Miyagi, Fukushima, and Iwate in Tohoku, all of which have still been suffering from the aftermath.   

 

According to the police report, the number of  the dead is 15,690 and 4,735 people are still missing as of  this Aug. 11th.

A lot of bereaved families and others watched the display, at each of which about 1000~2400 fireworks were set off. Many people viewed the displays wishing fast and successful reconstruction of

Sendai Star Festival begins

The annual Star Festival started Saturday in earthquake- and tsunami-hit Sendai, Miyagi Prefecture, with the aim of commemorating the disaster victims and marking a step toward reconstruction.

In the main commercial avenue of the city, some 3,000 green bamboo logs with colorful streamers and strips of paper were arranged in a row, and festival goers attach paper strips inscribed with wishes (tanzaku), origami, talismans and coloured threads.

The holding of the event was in doubt due to the disaster but the organizers wanted to encourage people in the ravaged areas by staging the festival, known as Tanabata in Japanese, which is said to be the only time when a pair of mythical lovers, represented by the stars Vega and Altair, who are separated by the Milky Way can meet each other.

During the three-day festival, the organizers expect the turnout to fall about 20 percent from usual years to some 1.75 million.

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Sendai Sparrow Dance (Sendai Suzume Odori)

Sendai Suzume Odori is a folk dance that Sendai Sparrow Dance Company reconstructed from a traditional entertainment of sparrow Dance that had been lost for a long time.

The original Sparrow Dance is derived from the dance improvised by the stonemasons at the feast for the construction of Sendai Castle of famous monarch Masamune Date about 400 years ago.The emblem of the Date clan incorporates two tree sparrows.

.The emblem of the Date clan

Because the movement of the masons dance was alike the appearances of skipping sparrow on the ground ，and also the Date ‘s emblem described sparrow ,so it was named ” Sparrow Dance ” ,and got to be danced at a variety of festivals.

School children in Miyagi prefecture learn and perform the Sparrow dance, especially during the Obon Festival.

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BAPE STORE Sendai

BAPE STORE Sendai
2-8-28, Chuo, Aoba-ku, Sendai-shi, Miyagi
022-214-2018
Mens/Ladies
MAP:BAPE STORE Sendai

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Burberry Blue Label Sendai Fujisaki

Burberry Blue Label Sendai Fujisaki
バーバリーブルーレーベル藤崎店
At Fujisaki store, 3-2-17, Ichiban-gai, Aoba-ku, Sendai
022-216-0087
Ladies
MAP:Burberry Blue Label Sendai Fujisaki Read the rest of this entry »