November 9th: Mike attended the morning session of the Explosives Conference held at the Tohoku University and then came back to the hotel to get me for lunch. He was feeling tired and sick, so he decided to change out of his dress shirt and tie and skip the rest of the conference. We walked to a place called Paruco, a fancy indoor mall, to find some karepan for lunch. We had our fill of bakery delights, including a different kind of karepan (fried bread filled with curry).
After our high carb lunch, we walked across the street to the Chris Road Mall to find the market that has the best prices. We bought what we thought was shirasu (little white dry fish) for my mom and some rice crackers--mainly for Jessica. Now to figure out how to get our goods home without an extra bag to carry on.... We stopped at the local store for some yogurt before going back to our hotel.
Beautiful large flowers near our hotel
Inside the Paracu indoor mall
Our bakery lunch: tonkatsu sandwich, lemon tart, and karepan
A fun cookie shop where customers stuff as many
cookies as possible into a small cellophane bag for 8.80 yen
A perfect day to see the ocean from our hotel window clearly
That night, we discovered a delicious ramen place just yards away from where we were staying. It was inside the same building as the Westin Hotel, on the 1st floor, but you had to walk outside to get to it. There were also many other shops, restaurants, and a grocery store on the three floors of that part of the building. We felt bad that we hadn't discovered this sooner!
Oishkata, ne?
The broth and vegetables felt great in our tummies that night, especially after being sick all week
November 10th: Another day of vegging at our hotel--this time until late afternoon. I was still feeling very sick and tired, so I skipped lunch with Mike. He went back to the university to listen to more symposium talks while I rested.
I pulled myself together before Mike returned to our hotel later that afternoon. We attended the fancy banquet at one of the hotel's ballrooms, which was hosted by the Explosives Symposium. We sat at a table with only a few other people seated and enjoyed their company and the 8+ courses that were served. Each course was beautifully presented on fine china, and the portions were very small--thank goodness.
About halfway through our meal, a group of "Samurai actors" performed the history of Lord Matsumune Date and the city of Sendai. They were young, energetic, and very entertaining! The last time we attended this symposium three years ago, it was held in Fukushima, and we were entertained by a young group of Taiko drummers; they too were awesome.
Our table posing with some of the Samurai actors
November 10th: We checked out of our hotel room at 9am and wandered back to the Chris Road Mall in search of better shirasu for my mom. We had a small breakfast at this cafe and enjoyed our last walk through the fun streets of the mall.
himselfHe wasn't hungry but wanted some karepan and other pastries
We enjoyed a delicious fast food lunch here at the Sendai Airport while awaiting our flight to Tokyo
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