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.