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Naha’s Yogi Park
I visited Yogi Park when they were holding a festival and all I can say is that I am clueless as to why it was called a festival.
Hardly anyone was there. There weren’t really any vendors. I didn’t see a stage nor did I see anyone performing anything. It was weird.
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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.
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Sendai: A Breath of Fresh Air
Sendai was a breath of fresh air for me, both figuratively and literally. I adored Sendai. Just when I got fed up with Japan, Sendai came to the rescue. And unfortunately for Japan, Sendai was probably the only place I liked in all of mainland Japan, save for Matsushiro, which is a place I won’t talk about today since today is all about Sendai.
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The BL Cafe Experience
One word: overrated. Honestly, I’ve been intrigued with this cafe ever since I first learned about it through some show over YouTube. The show’s host from Hawaii gave the cafe a rating of three stars and I questioned why her rating was rather low. After visiting the cafe myself, I now understand why she couldn’t even bother to give four stars. The irony of it all is that a decent amount of YouTubers rave about this cafe and I thought I’d be able to rave about it as well. Unfortunately, I can’t even rave about it…
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Nittaiji Temple
When I first visited Japan, I had Nittaiji Temple on my to-visit list. As Nittaiji isn’t a World Heritage site, you may find me strange for having this specific temple on my to-visit list. However, it’s really not all that strange. A place should never be visited just because it holds the title as a World Heritage site. A place should be visited simply because you hold interest in it or happen to stumble upon it. And I had an interest in Nittaiji. Unfortunately, I couldn’t cross Nittaiji Temple off from my to-visit list until after my first time in Japan was already over. Regardless, I made it happen in my second trip and that’s all that matters.