This is an extra post on Miyagi Prefecture. During my trip to Tohoku, we visited a strawberry farm in Yamamoto, Miyagi Prefecture for ichigogari (strawberry-picking).

I had such an amazing experience that I decided to make this an entirely separate blog post!

The farm I went to is Ichigo World.

Actually it would be quite misleading to call it a farm, because…

It looks more like a chic studio/lab with a lot of stylish designs and thoughtful decos everywhere.

And the products they carry are not just fresh premium grade ichigo from the farm, but also sparkling wine and skin care range! read more

This coming March 11 marks the 5th anniversary of the Great Eastern Japan Earthquake that happened in 2011.

It has already been 5 years (I haven’t even met the danna back then!) and until today, it is still an incident everyone talks about here in Japan on a daily basis. The TV channels run daily special features on 3.11 every day now, and I was crying so much watching a documentary about the fire fighter teams in Japan going out for rescue when the disaster happened. Real footages taken on that day itself was shown for the first time on TV. One of the fire fighters lost his wife and child in the morning to Tsunami, but he was still determined to go out and save as many people as he could. T______T. read more

After traveling to Iwate Prefecture, my next destination was Miyagi Prefecture.

Going to Sendai from Ninohe by Shinkansen again, which takes about an hour.

Sendai is the capital city of Miyagi Prefecture, and it is also the largest city in Tohoku area. I have actually been to Sendai before on my birthday in 2013.

Loooove Shinkansen rides. Scenic winter view all the way!

This was the breakfast I had in the morning. It’s just so genius to have plates like that for hotel buffet, makes everything looks ultra gourmet! read more

On my birthday this year, the danna took a couple of days off. Both of us are not the gifts type of person. We sort of reached an unspoken understanding where we won’t have to go through the headache of what to buy each other during special occasions, but to decide together for a small holiday somewhere.

Last year we went to Okinawa, and this year we both wanted to travel up north to Tohoku.

The main reason was really just to give Tohoku some support. I have heard and seen heartbreaking interviews about how bad the people in the disaster areas after 311 have to struggle for a living, and every damn time it bring me to tears. Although just us visiting the area per se would not change anything about the people’s lives in Tohoku, i hope at least the presence of some tourists there will encourage the people there to hold on and persevere , or at least even just a little smile and brighten up their day. 🙂 read more