Founded in 1604 by Lord Masamune Date and ruled until 1868 by the Date clan, Sendai is a bustling, lively city of 1.2 million, a 2 hour Shinkansen ride northeast of Tokyo, close to the Pacific Ocean, and nestled among hills and not far from mountains that block more frigid air and winds that make the climate here very agreeable. There is a subway, but it has just one line. Buses and taxi's can get you anywhere else you need to go.

Zuihoden is the ancestral shrine complex for the Date ("dah-tay") family, which ruled Sendai and much of the Tohoku region from 1604 through 1868.

Aoba Castle was Date Masamune's fortress, overlooking Sendai, with impregnable walls, a secure water source and rivers on three sides. It was never breached from the ground. When the Meiji Restoration arose and feudalism was cast aside, the Date's began the slow climb down from this perch, and unfortunately, American bombers in WW2 blasted the castle itself to smithereens.

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