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    Catching Sakura: My 12 Days Self-Drive Itinerary through Sendai, Fukushima, Nikko, and Tokyo in Spring – Day 1

    The first 2 days would be spent in Sendai. We took a red eye flight and arrived via Narita airport in the early hours.

    From Narita, we are taking the Keisei Skyliner to Ueno. The journey will take about 40-45 minutes.

    From the Keisei Ueno station, it’s a short walk to JR Ueno station. The 2 stations are not connected but it is easy to navigate by following the signs.

    We decided to do the transfer via Ueno versus Tokyo as we felt the crowd will be less (at least that’s what I observed by researching online forums as well as watching various Youtube videos)

    The Keisei Skyliner is reserved seats and is rather comfortable. If you are unsure about the purchase, you can do so via the counter instead of the self-help kiosk.

    You can find out more about the timeing and prices at their official website. https://www.keisei.co.jp/keisei/tetudou/skyliner/us/skyliner/index.php 

    From Ueno to Sendai via Shinkansen will take about 1 hour and 30 minutes. It seems there are different type of train with slighty different speed. For the shortest trip, choose the one indicated as ‘Hayabusa’.

    We opted for the green car which comes with more comfortable and spacious seats.

    If you are travelling with big luggages, I highly recommend this option. With the luggage in front of me, I have little wiggle room left for my legs. But for 1.5 hours, it was still bearable.

    This is my first time taking the Shinkansen and I looked forward to trying the train bento.

    This is the self heating gyu tan (ox tongue) rice that you will see often in many Youtube videos. It’s taste was just okay. Not too bad but not crazy good. But I suppose it’s an experience you should try at least once.

    There are actually plenty food kiosks prior to boarding so you can allow yourself a bit more time to shop around.

    Once we arrive, we are headed straight to Toyota office to pick up our car. We did not loiter as we have lunch reservation. A lot of restaurants in Japan close after 2pm for afternoon break so I did not want to take any chance and miss my lunch.

    Once exit from the train station, the Toyota shop banner is quite obvious so we just had to follow the sign.

    There’s no road to cross and it was easy walking along the pavements.

    Lunch: Oysters Feast!

    It was a quick 30-40 minutes drive from Sendai station to our lunch place: Matsushima Taritsuan Oysters and Conger Eel.