JAL flies direct from BOS to NRT, via the Boeing 787 Dreamliner

• Non-Stop
  • JAL:
  • get window seat, A or K, for better shoulder room
    • avoid aisle / center sheets, as you can't drop the armrests
  • target row 1 or 8 (bulkhead rows)
    
• With Layover
  • ANA (JFK, ORD → NRT)
    • plane: Boeing 777-300ER (avoid 787, much narrower!)
    • roomiest seats available
  • United (EWR, SFO, ORD → NRT)
    • plane: Boeing 777-300ER, 787
  • Sinapore Airlines (JFK → NRT)
    • plane: Boeing 777-300ER, Airbus 350
    • downside: wide seats but not sleep diagnonal to lay flat

Themes: Matsuo Basho (松尾芭蕉), Date Masamune (伊達政宗)

Mogami (最上氏) and Date (伊達氏) clans

Major history of city began with Date daimyō, Date Masamune.

名物、食品:牛タン、炉端焼き、ずんだ餅

酒:

名物: 柳宇和氏、こけし

Yamagata Castle, connected to Date Masamune

Ōsaki Hachiman-gu (国宝大崎八幡宮), shrine ordered built by Date Masamune

名物：酒

• Day 1
  • Aoba Joshi (青葉城址), Aoba castle (Date's) ruins
  • Sendai City Museum (仙台市博物館), Date Masamune’s armour
  • Zuihōden (瑞鳳殿): grave of Date Masamune
• Day 2
  • Sendai Umi-no-mori Aquarium
  • Kirin Beer factory tour: KIRIN ICHIBAN Shinbori Experience

• En route from Sendai, visit Urakasumi Sake Brewery
  • tours at 11:00 and 14:00 on weedays only (reservations: info_en@urakasumi.com)
• Zuiganji (瑞巌寺): first built 828 CE, rebuilt by Date Masamune in 1609 as his family temple
• Entsuin Temple (円通院): abutts Zuiganji. built to honor Masamune's grandson, Mitsumune
• Godaido

• Chusonji Temple
• Grave of Saito Musashibo-Benkei (西塔 武蔵坊 弁慶)
  • warrior of the fame 「弁慶の泣き所』
• Motsuji Temple
  • Basho wept here, composing his immortal haiku: “Ah, summer grasses! / All that remains / Of the warriors' dreams.”
• Takadachi Gikeido (高館義経堂)
  • place where Minamoto no Yoshitsune (first samurai of Kamakura shogunate) committed seppuku while his warrior Benkei stood on the narrow bridge and was famously killed while standing upright (弁慶の立往生); Date Masamune built a memorial to honor it in 1683 and Matsuo Basho visited in 1689

Yamagata produces 95% of all shogi pieces

• Yamadera / Rissyakuji (立石寺): Basho composed famous haiku here
• Mogami River Boat ride: Basho took a boat tour and wrote haiku about the power of the river
• Kajo Park: original seat of power of Mogami Clan.
• Mogami Yoshiaki Historical Museum: Mogami Yoshiaki's actual battle armor—complete with a bullet dent from a matchlock gun
• Senshoji Temple: temple holds the family graves of the Mogami Clan, including the final resting place of Mogami Yoshiaki

• Hotel: Yunushi Ichijou (湯主一條), ~$250