Aoba Castle

The grounds of Aoba Castle are peaceful, pretty and rather vast. Although there isn’t exactly much of a castle left, you do get to see remnants of it and I found it rather enjoyable to wander the grounds.

For those of you that have awareness of Japan’s samurais, Aoba Castle was built by Date Masamune. Yes, the “one eyed dragon”. The interesting thing about Date Masamune is that he’s often portrayed in popular media as someone sporting an eyepatch, so you can imagine my surprise when I saw a statue of him, sans eyepatch in Sendai.

It kind of makes you wonder if he actually wore an eyepatch centuries ago. I suppose that’s something I’ll never know.

All I know is that the man was indeed blind in one eye and because of it, was not the favored son of his mom’s. From what I understand about her, she was rather abusive to Date Masamune, emotionally.

Toxic mom aside, there’s something about Date Masamune I like and respect.

Out of the many famous samurais, Date Masamune was open to foreigners. Perhaps it’s just pure coincidence, but maybe that’s why the vibe I experienced in Sendai was a lot more pleasant than some other parts of mainland Japan. Maybe. Just maybe.

I feel that sometimes history has a big role in shaping up the future. Who’s to say that his openness and hospitality to foreigners didn’t encourage the people of Sendai to be more open to “outsiders” and continue to be so with succeeding generations? So, I gotta love Date Masamune for this.

If I was born centuries ago, I would have liked to see what Aoba Castle looked like, as well as get a glimpse of Date Masamune. But I’m sure things were quite complex back then. I probably had to be a somebody and male to meet someone of such social status. Hierarchy. Ugh.

Anyway, enough on Date Masamune and back to his castle grounds!

Not far from the ground’s museum, you’ll come across an area that shows the impact of the 2011 Tohoku earthquake. It was a bit devastating and surreal to see how Japan’s natural disasters can easily impact humans, their lives and the very things they built and created. With so many natural disasters that occur in Japan, I can’t help but to wonder what the average person in Japan thinks of life. If it’s dark, perhaps I don’t want to know…

When you reach the top of Aoba Castle, you’ll encounter a pretty impressive statue of Date Masamune, along with some other statues.

You’ll also be awarded with great views of Sendai, which I enjoyed very much.

I must admit that I was pretty tired by the time I made it to the top of Aoba Castle. I had to take a break and drink liquids to replenish myself. To make matters worse, it was raining and cold. (I love rain and I love cold weather, but it wasn’t a good mix with my trying to take photos and trying to stay dry.) Since I was the only person trying to take a break on a bench, I think I caught the attention of a good amount of passerbys for no reason. They probably found me amusing or knew I was a foreigner but at least they were smiling… I’d take a smile over a glare any day.

On the other side of Aoba Castle is a shrine, a gift shop and a dining area. I kind of wanted to eat, but at the same time wasn’t in the mood to eat. So, I didn’t even bother to go inside. (There were only two people dining in there and I didn’t want to risk going inside if I was going to possibly smell like cigarettes or worse, consume something that wasn’t vegetarian friendly.)

As for the gift shop, it looked a bit expensive so I didn’t bother to go inside and now, I’m so upset that I didn’t go inside the darn gift shop. If there was anything I wanted to buy in Sendai, it was a plush of Miyagi’s mascot. I really wanted it and it could’ve been mine’s if I had just stepped inside the gift shop and bought one. That is, provided that the gift shop was selling such an item. Oh well, it is what it is. Since I was planning to visit some other sites in Sendai, I told myself that I would probably run into another gift shop and worst case scenario, I could just buy something representing Miyagi’s mascot at JR Sendai Station. (It didn’t happen…)

Aoba Castle has a mini indoor informational room by the restroom which I actually almost missed out on. Fortunately, I had to make use of the restroom before leaving the grounds and upon seeing people enter this room, I decided to go in. I enjoyed looking around but would’ve enjoyed it more, if the material was also offered in English. If you understand Japanese well enough, you can take advantage of a documentary they run. I think the average person might not be interested in watching a documentary, but there was actually a young man watching it alone when I was present. He was probably a history lover. Honestly, I would’ve joined him, but it was kind of pointless for me to join since there was no way I would be able to understand the documentary and I wasn’t in the mood to try to figure out what the documentary was talking about.

In leaving the top of Aoba Castle, I encounter the castle grounds yet again. And this time, I take note of a site that I believe used to be Katakura’s residence. While there was really nothing to make of the spot, it was kind of cool to see and know that Katakura used to live there. (Katakura was basically Date Masamune’s right hand man.)

Interestingly enough, my highlight in leaving the grounds was a manhole. The manhole featured Aoba Castle and was without a question, pretty. While it may have been a tad bit strange to take a photo of the ground while cars drove past me, in the end, the outcome was worth it.