u/WhippuChan

Last year, I took a trip during the summer to go visit the Tanabata festival in Rikuzentakata and had a ton of fun exploring Iwate and the Sanriku Coast by public transit. This time, I once again had some vacation time to burn and an excuse to be in Rikuzentakata during Golden Week, so I decided to take a little super-vacation and explore the rest of the Sanriku Coast, as well as properly visit Sendai and Yamagata for the first time.

🗺️ Trip map here 🗺️

FYI, the JR East Pass covers pretty much every part of the trip that I took (minus the Kinkasan ferry), including the Sanriku Railway! Depending on where you are going or how much you use the Shinkansen you may find it to be a good deal.

A quick personal appeal as someone who loves the Sanriku Coast

The Sanriku Coast is a stretch of the Japan coast that starts around Ishinomaki (east of Sendai/Matsushima) in Miyagi Prefecture and stretches all the way up to the northern end of Iwate Prefecture/south end of Aomori (somewhere in between Kuji and Hachinohe). It seems to be an incredibly overlooked region of Japan, which I think is a huge shame. Not only is it stunningly beautiful with amazing seafood, but it's got a unique activity you can't do anywhere else: Disaster tourism.

Basically, the Sanriku region has been hit by large tsunamis multiple times over its history, but most notably during the devastating March 11, 2011 earthquake and tsunami (henceforth referred to as 3/11) during which many towns were almost entirely washed away. Since the disaster, the people of the area have been working hard to rebuild their towns to be more protected against future disasters, restore prosperity in the region, and inform the future generation about disaster preparation. There are countless museums, monuments, and building remains about 3/11 that I think are a humbling reminder of the fragility of human life. There is no need to worry that wanting to see tsunami ruins is morbid or taking advantage of peoples' suffering, because on the contrary they want people to come, learn about the 3/11 tragedy, and hear their stories.

All in all, come to the Sanriku Coast to contemplate life, put your tourism money towards communities that need it, and eat tempura oysters (they're so damn good).

How was Golden Week?

Travel during Golden Week in Tohoku was extra chill. I mean some places had some crowds for sure, such as the tsunami museum in Rikuzentakata, but I didn't go to a single place where I felt like I was drowning in people, and hotels with reasonable prices could be found easily in places such as Ofunato and Kamaishi. Granted, I visited some hotspots like Matsushima Bay and Yamadera on the weekdays after the holiday.

Also, the Golden Week "super-vacation" seems to be pretty uncommon, Matsushima Bay on a Thursday was totally fine and the Yamagata Shinkansen I took back on Saturday evening was half empty.

Quick context

I live in Japan and speak decent Japanese, but will try to point out English friendliness whenever possible. I use 100% public transit, no rental cars or private taxis (I'm too cheap for that). My mode of travel is basically "pick an interesting-looking city, show up at their tourism information center, and ask them what's up". Of course, I understand if you bought a flight across the world that you would prefer to have more concrete plans, so that's why I'm writing this trip report.

I'll rate my impressions of each destination as such:

☆☆☆ - Limited appeal
★☆☆ - Nice, but not necessarily unique so perfectly fine to skip
★★☆ - Worthwhile, stop by if something else in the area interests you or if you're a fan
★★★ - Highly impactful, would recommend to almost everyone

4/30 - Onagawa and Kinkasan

★★★ Onagawa
A small port town located east of Sendai, from Sendai you ride the train out to Ishinomaki and then transfer to the Ishinomaki Line to Onagawa.

Onagawa has a rather interesting history. After 3/11, when the city convened to discuss how the city should be rebuilt, the old people stepped aside and let young people decide on how it should be rebuilt, resulting in a comfortable pedestrianized center and of all things, a skate park. I think their vision was executed beautifully. Strictly speaking there's not that much to do here, but I think it's worth seeing how much the city has rebuilt since 3/11 and supporting them with your tourism money, even if it's just to look at the police box and eat some seafood.

★★☆ Former Onagawa Police Box - A police box that was toppled over by the tsunami, now enclosed in a path with some exhibits (all in Japanese). Really gives you a sense of how powerful the tsunami was.
★★★ Enjoy the pedestrian area. I had an absolutely amazing tempura donburi in the area.
★☆☆ There's a public bathhouse located right by the station with a nice view of the bay.

★★★ Kinkasan
From Onagawa, there is a ferry that will take you to Kinkasan (金華山), an island featuring a large shrine and a decent population of friendly non-aggressive deer. I also got lucky and there were some late-blooming sakura trees. I'm not a huge shrine person but this one felt really serene and mystical, with the sakura I was quite impressed. The main downside is spending 5000 yen on the round trip fare + having to stick to the limited ferry schedule (check the schedule and the weather).

To be honest I had no idea that this island existed until I showed up in Onagawa and looked at the tourist pamphlets. The cost turned me off at first but I decided to go because of the deer and good weather, and I have no regrets about going. A real hidden gem (if you ignore the ferry cost).

5/1 - Ishinomaki, Minamisanriku, Kesennuma

The weather today was pouring buckets so it was a pretty miserable day to try to be a tourist, but I persevered. The goal today was to move from my hotel in Ishinomaki up the coast to Kesennuma, hitting Minamisanriku for lunch.

FYI, the rail section in between Ishinomaki and Ofunato was destroyed by 3/11 and has been replaced by BRT. Some sections use dedicated roads that were paved on top of the old track sections. It's still JR-operated though so the JR East pass will work fine.

★☆☆ Ishinomori Manga Museum - Truthfully I have very little manga cred so this was just an indoors time killer. If you're a fan of Shotaro Ishinomori you'll love it (very little English support though). There's also a couple pictures on the top floor showing the damage from the 2011 tsunami, you can see how the museum lobby was completely wrecked.

★★☆ Minamisanriku (Shizugawa Station)
Minamisanriku is a resort and fishing town with a small seafood market. A decent amount has been rebuilt, though perhaps not to the extent of Onagawa. Things to see here:

★☆☆ Minamisanriku Sansan Shotengai - The main seafood market. It's pretty modest by most standards, but again you have to consider the history of the area. I had a decent kaisendon here and then got some oysters and scallops from one of the seafood vendors.
★★★ The Memorial Park - Located right next to the seafood market, it's a huge green park dedicated to remembering 3/11. They have preserved the remains of the former Disaster Prevention Building, which was completely submerged leaving nothing but a red skeleton behind. Really jarring to look at.
★☆☆ Moai statues - Where else are you going to see moai in Japan?

I wanted to see more but the rain wasn't letting up so I decided to move on.

★★★ Kesennuma City Memorial Museum (Ruins of Koyo High School) - Since I had extra time from leaving Minamisanriku early, I was able to fit into a trip to the Kesennuma City Memorial Museum, a bit south of Kesennuma proper. Though it's about a 20-25 minute walk from the Rikuzen-Hashikami bus stop, it's absolutely 100% worth the walk.

This is a museum connected directly to the remains of a former high school that you can tour. They have basically left it as-is since the disaster, so you can still see students' textbooks scattered all over the floor, a car that got washed up to the 3rd floor (!), etc. Furthermore everything is translated into perfect English (minus a couple exhibits at the end), and the documentaries in the final room actually made me tear up. If you're in the area I would call it a must-see.

5/2-5/4 - Kesennuma, Rikuzentakata, and Ofunato

For these days I had some personal business in Rikuzentakata so I took things pretty slow and easy. So I will just provide a summary of the main cities in the area. I stayed 2 nights in Kesennuma and 2 nights in Ofunato.

★★☆ Kesennuma
A quaint port city that serves as a connection between two BRT sections, as well as the Ofunato Line going to Ichinoseki. The core part of Kesennuma starts from the fish market near the Umi no Ichi shopping mall and runs along the bay towards the ferry terminal. There's lots of great views of the bay and the bridge all around, especially at the "Ukimidou" viewpoint. The ferry area feels quite modern and reconstructed. Worth a walk around (and a beer at the local brewery). Also I love how much the town loves their mascot Hoya Boya.

??? Kesennuma Fish Market - There is a very large observation deck here where you can watch the fish market activities. Sadly they were all on hiatus for Golden Week so I can't say how worthwhile it is. You can walk along the rooftop for more nice views, and there's a small little free museum (水産情報等発信施設) with some cute fishery exhibits at the south end.
☆☆☆ Kesennuma Shark Museum - Small time-killer museum that was definitely on the expensive side for its size. Fine as a time killer if you can understand Japanese, definitely not worth it if you don't.

★★☆ Rikuzentakata
Disclaimer that I am hugely biased towards here because I have some connections here. In the end though, it's a sleepy small fishing town so I will refrain from giving it a ★★★. However I would like to encourage people to explore it a little bit beyond just the tsunami museum and support their businesses because I think you will get a sense of how much has happened to the city after the 3/11 tragedy. Notably, the city itself was actually raised 10 meters to mitigate future disasters, so the old city is literally lying underneath the new one.

There's not really much to the city center, which mainly consists of a grocery store and some local surrounding businesses. However it has a very "designed" and open feel to it that's quite unique compared to other Japanese towns, I think you can see that they've designed it in a way that encourages walkability and community.

★★★ Miracle Pine Tree - A replica of a solitary pine tree that survived the tsunami (every single other tree was washed away), though the real tree died later due to saltwater poisoning. Regardless, it's a pretty captivating symbol of Rikuzentakata's hopes and recovery. Next to the tree is the remains of a youth hostel that really shows the extent of the damage. From there you can climb up the seawall and get a view of the bay, which is both beautiful to look at and also rather scary to think that it could have been the source of such a disaster.
★★★ The Iwate Tsunami Memorial Museum - Perhaps the best museum to learn more about the 3/11 disaster. It has the usual exhibits showing the damage, but what I found particularly meaningful were the exhibits that look into things like the disaster response, peoples' personal stories, the rationale as to why some people chose not to flee despite the warnings, etc. It is also 100% translated to English. Incidentally, this time I was there with my sister who doesn't speak Japanese, and one of the staff with an "English" tag on her uniform was super eager to help us out and gave us lots of informational brochures about Iwate and helped guide us by telling us when the movies were playing. I asked her how many English-speaking people come by and she estimated "maybe 1-2 every day". Super sweet, go help raise that number a little bit. Also the museum is connected to the roadside station, so after you're done learning about 3/11 you can go eat delicious seafood and buy your obligatory souvenirs.
★☆☆ Tapic 45 Earthquake Remains - The ruins of the old roadside station, a small walk from the museum. Go look at the tsunami height marker and think about what that must have looked like in person.
★☆☆ Yonezawa Shokai Remains - A ruined building adjacent to the new town center, and the only remnant of the old town center. This one is more interesting with some context: The owner of the building, Yuichi Yonezawa, survived the tsunami by climbing onto the building's 1 square meter chimney and was spared by just about 20 cm. He chose to leave the building ruins behind as a memory and now runs "kataribe" storyteller sessions about the experience (I was fortunate enough to be part of one by coincidence). Apparently if you make arrangements with him, you can actually enter the building and stand on top of the chimney yourself. (Would require Japanese or an interpreter.) Beyond that it's just another ruined building, but you can see how much the town center has been raised compared to the old town.
★☆☆ Rikuzentakata City Museum - A free city museum with various exhibits, including a boat that was washed away to Crescent City, California (they are now sister cities). All in Japanese but a nice little time killer.
★☆☆ The Former Yoshida Family Residence - A nice historical wooden residence that was completely destroyed by 3/11, but they actually salvaged as many parts as they could find of it and rebuilt it using a mix of old and new parts, which you can see in the architecture.
★☆☆ Kurosaki Senkyo - A nice scenic view from a cape jutting out south of Rikuzentakata. There's a nearby onsen with a nice view of the ocean. I rented an electric bike and rode 16 km and had lots of nice views of the countryside and ocean. Also stopped by a random rescue cat cafe "保護猫カフェ×猫雑貨専門店 one scene". Next time I'd like to bike out to the Goishihama Coast.

☆☆☆ Ofunato - Another port town like Kesennuma. However it is much more stretched along the bay and there is very little of interest within the city proper aside from some restaurants clustered near the station. Most of their tourism is focused in Goishihama Bay.

★☆☆ Kamome Terrace cafe - A cafe dedicated to one of the Tohoku region's speciality sweets Kamome no Tamago (Seagull Egg). Nice place to relax.
★☆☆ Minato Park - A memorial park with a ramp you can walk up showing the height of the past tsunamis, as well as a bunch of Pokemon reliefs along the seawall showing off some rock-type Pokemon (the kanji characters for Iwate 岩手 are "boulder" and "hand"). Very nice view of the bay.
??? Ofunato Fish Market - Was closed for Golden Week. Seems to have food and a place to observe the fish market activities. The Kesennuma market is much easier to access so I would choose that one if you want to watch that kind of stuff.

5/5 - Kamaishi to Tono

Since I was done with my personal business, my goal was to make it to Tono by night with a stop to see Kamaishi, both cities that I passed on my first trip. From Ofunato I went to Sakari station and took the Sanriku Railway to Kamaishi, where I had 4.5 hours to kill.

★★★ The Sanriku Railway
I just want to say that I absolutely love the Sanriku Railway. It is a beautiful coastline railway running from Ofunato (Sakari Station) to Kuji that has cars with really fun decorations (e.g. Pokemon, Kaiketsu Zorori, Golgo 13, Little Twin Stars), and they will actually stop at scenic points and point out parts of the scenery, with some announcements in English. Just an absolute delight to ride. I rode the entirety of it last year, but this time I only rode a very small section of it, which I was sad about.

The Sanriku Railway was of course heavily damaged from 3/11 and they had considered turning it into bus service like the Kesennuma area, but ultimately the community decided that they wanted to see rail service restored, and now it serves as a symbol of recovery and hope for the region despite its ongoing population troubles. As someone from the transit-deprived US, I just think it's amazing that it exists and is still going. It also got a boost from a NHK TV drama "Amachan", which was largely filmed in Kuji.

★☆☆ Kamaishi
Standard small town that used to have a lot of steel production. There's not much to see in the city itself.

★★☆ Kamaishi Dai-kannon Temple - A towering buddhist statue that is visible even from the Sanriku Railway. You can actually climb up the temple. The statue itself is unique and worth stopping by for, but honestly I think the real draw is the view of the ocean, on a blue day it's quite stunning. If you stop by Kamaishi you might as well go there.
☆☆☆ Iron and Steel History Museum - Went here to kill time while waiting for a bus since it's close to the Dai-kannon. It's not bad and had a few interesting exhibits, but it's a lot of reading and basically nothing is translated, so most international visitors won't get much out of it.

★★☆ Rokando Cave - A limestone cave with a beautiful underwater waterfall that has been left in a relatively natural state. From Kamaishi Station you take the Kamaishi Line west and get out at Kami-Arisu. Some of the passages are quite narrow so I highly recommend dumping all your stuff in the free lockers. Apparently you can eat "waterfall soba" at the nearby restaurant during the summer.

Big caveat: The Kamaishi Line schedule is really infrequent, each direction comes every 2-3 hours. The cave itself takes only an hour max or so, so you'll have to kill time, but the nearby restaurant closes quite early. And in the end it's a cave which is not necessarily a uniquely Japanese thing.

5/6 - Tono

★★☆ Tono
A very rural town in Iwate that has a lot of focus on folklore (especially the legend of the kappa) and preservation of traditional culture. Their tourism office seems very well equipped to handle foreign visitors. I thought it was a great place to bike around and enjoy the beautiful views, especially along the river path. However, even as someone living in Japan, I found the folklore/cultural elements to be a bit tough to connect with, and nothing really super impressed me.

I rented an electric bicycle from the tourism center (they give you a discount if you stay overnight in the area) and hit up a bunch of different attractions in the area. In order:

★☆☆ Unedori Daimyojin Shrine - A small shrine famous for the red ribbons that people tie with only their left hand for good luck. Visually striking but that's about it.
★★☆ Tono City Museum - A museum dedicated to showing off traditional ways of life and folklore. I was recommended by my hotel host to go here as my first major destination to learn more about the culture, which would provide context for the later places I visited. However, despite how thoroughly the area was promoted for foreigners, I found that the museum was relatively lacking in translations, which I was a bit surprised by. [Edit: It does have headsets/tablets!] It still has some nice exhibits and I think it's good to go for the context.
★☆☆ Denshoen - An outdoor museum consisting of a number of thatched houses showing traditional lifestyles. Pretty straightforward and worth seeing in person. Also has a little shrine devoted to the Oshira-sama legend (The Woman and the Horse).
☆☆☆ Kappa Pool - A small section of a shaded grove with a stream where it's said that you might be able to catch a kappa. I was definitely expecting more from one of Tono's flagship attractions to be quite honest, it's just a little stream where people attach cucumbers to fishing rods. If you have the time and conviction to go fishing for a kappa you might enjoy it more, but sadly I had neither of those.
★☆☆ Fukusenji Temple - Buddhist shrine with Japan's largest wooden buddhist sculpture. Besides that, it's "just a temple" (with a bit of a steep climb to reach).
★☆☆ Tono Furusato Village - An outdoor replica of a traditional village, similar to Denshoen but on a larger scale. To be honest if you visit here you can probably skip Denshoen.
★★☆ Tonogo Hachimangu Shrine - I accidentally stumbled across this shrine while attempting to find the "Cat Shrine" listed on Google Maps. It turns out the Cat Shrine is just a small little shrine at the entrance of the Hachimangu shrine, which is quite spacious and impressive. They sell some cute cat-related souvenirs. Worth a stop if you like shrines and are in the area.
★★☆ Jingisukan - Tono produces a lot of lamb, so there are a lot of restaurants devoted to jingisukan, a type of yakiniku where meat is grilled in the center and the juices cook the vegetables on the side. If you're in Tono you might as well do it.
★☆☆ Tono Folktale Museum - Close to the Tono City Museum, I chose to go here because I had some time to kill before my train to Sendai. It has two main sections, one that focuses more on specific folktales and another devoted to Kunio Yanagita, the author of the Tono Monogatari book that records the region's folktales. It's noticeably more expensive than the other museums though, and I think most foreigners won't connect so much with the Kunio Yanagita section.

Overall I had a fun day biking around and enjoying the beautiful sights, but I'm a bit hard-pressed to identify one specific thing that I would tell people that you have to do in Tono.

5/7 - Matsushima Bay

After Tono I returned to Sendai and spent 2 nights there. First I tried to go to a 3/11 museum in Nobiru, but it turned out it was closed due to Thursday being the first regular work day after a holiday. Many institutions have a policy of rescheduling their scheduled day off if it falls on a holiday, so be careful of that if you're traveling after a holiday.

★★★ Matsushima Bay
One of Japan's "three great views". The region is worthy of its reputation; I won't say the view was life-changing, but it's undoubtedly beautiful and unique.

★★★ Matsushima Bay boat ride - I took the Niomaru cruise ship, but there are other operators available. The cruise is reasonably priced, 1000 yen + 600 if you pay up for a second floor seat. It lasts about 50 minutes and has announcements in both English and Japanese.
★★★ Fukuura Bridge and Fukuura Island - A long and striking bridge that connects you with a quaint island with great views. Has a 300 yen entry fee but it's totally worth it. Go grab a Zunda shake from a nearby shop before you cross and enjoy the vibes.
??? Zuiganji Temple - A big attraction here but I got caught off guard by its unusually early closing time of 3:30 PM so I couldn't go.

Matsushima is a half-day attraction for most I would say, if I hadn't been caught out by the Nobiru museum closure I could have gone to see the Date Masamune Mausoleum.

5/8 - Yamadera and Yamagata

I would have liked to stay a bit longer in Sendai (which it turns out would have been the right choice), but I had plans to meet my sister at Yamadera in the early morning. This was also my first time visiting the Yamagata region so I wanted to stay in Yamagata to explore and see how I felt about it.

★★★ Yamadera - A really nice temple complex built into the mountainside, with a 1000 step staircase to reach the inner temple. A posted sign stated the recommended time to be 130 minutes, but I think I timed it and I was done with the whole round trip within 60 minutes.

The view is quite nice and I respect the efforts it must have taken to build such a complex, but to be honest it wasn't as breathtaking as I had been led to anticipate. As far as shrines go I thought Kinkasan was more impactful.

☆☆☆ Sagae - A town known for producing lots of cherries. To be honest, I only went to this city because I like their mascot haha. There's a "Cherry Land" Road Station I was curious about, but it was a long trek from the main station, and the tourism center only rents out bicycles on weekends and holidays. It's just a standard road station with a ton of cherry products that you can find elsewhere. And a Turkish Pavilion for some reason, though it was under construction so I couldn't get a Turkish coffee. Not really a tourist city in the end.

☆☆☆ Yamagata city - I had expected a bit more from the eponymous city of Yamagata Prefecture, but there was surprisingly little to do here. The castle ruins park is quite unremarkable, if you were dropped into the middle of it you'd have no idea that it was a former castle. Perfectly fine to use as a base to explore but otherwise don't expect much.

5/9 - Tendo and Yonezawa

To be honest I struggled trying to figure out what to do on the last day of my trip in Yamagata, as most of the biggest tourist spots were too far away considering that I needed to be in Yonezawa by 5 PM (I had a non-changeable Shinkansen reservation there). I decided on going to Tendo, a city associated with the production of shogi (Japanese chess) pieces.

★☆☆ Tendo
Standard Japanese city with lots of shogi imagery strewn throughout the city. If you're a shogi fan, you might as well pay a visit. That being said, most interesting things are a bit of a walk from the main station. It's also got a small onsen town, though it's not particularly scenic.

★★☆ Tendo Park - I walked here because I was curious to see the venue for their "human shogi" event. I was surprised to see that Tendo Park is a surprisingly nice park in its own right. From the northern parking lot there is a stairway that leads through the "Momiji Park", which I can imagine must look really beautiful during the autumn colors. At the top of the stairway is the shogi venue, as well as a great viewpoint of the city area. Even without the shogi imagery it's a beautiful park.
★☆☆ Tendo Shogi Museum - A small museum located right next to the station. Exhibits are entirely in Japanese. Talks about the history of shogi and the craftsmanship process, the latter of which is pretty easy to understand even without Japanese knowledge. Honestly worth it just to see the 25x25 shogi board on display, which I'm going to assume was made as an art piece or a practical joke.
★☆☆ Tendo Mokko Showroom - If you're a furniture buff, the HQ for a relatively famous wood furniture maker Tendo Mokko is located here, albeit a very long walk from Tendo station. You can make a reservation ahead of time to see their factory, but I just looked at the showroom and enjoyed sitting in a wide variety of chairs. That being said, they have a showroom in Tokyo too so you don't have to come out all this way just to see their furniture.

★☆☆ Yonezawa
Because I stayed in Tendo a bit longer than expected, I had about 2.5 hours in Yonezawa and had to speedrun it. Yonezawa is mostly famous for their beef production, which… Well, it's beef. It also has some samurai history. Much like Tendo, the main attractions (Uesugi Shrine and the Yonezawa castle ruins) are quite far from the station, though at least there's a bus that will take you there.

★★☆ Uesugi Shrine - If you do decide to stop in Yonezawa, the castle ruin area that contains Uesugi Shrine is actually quite nice, certainly much more picturesque than Yamagata city's ruins. There's also some history museums presumably detailing the history of the Uesugi Clan, though I didn't have time to look at them.

I also thought it was funny that they had some stuff catering very clearly to foreign tourists like "rent a kimono" advertisements and a bus announcement in perfect English, despite the fact that I didn't see a single foreigner there.

Overall, Yamagata didn't impress me nearly as much as coastal Miyagi/Iwate did. I am aware that I did not go to some of Yamagata's biggest tourist spots such as Ginzan Onsen, Zao Onsen, and Dewasanzan, but I try to judge a prefecture by more than just its biggest tourist spots, and from that perspective Yamagata didn't really pass my vibe checks. The Shinkansen ride back was very pretty though!

Bonus: Some places I went during my last summer trip

This post is already super long but I also want to recommend some other places I went last year. They are on the map shown in pink (the route I took is highlighted in green).

★★★ Rikuzentakata's "Ugoku Tanabata" Festival (Moving Tanabata) - Held on August 7 in Rikuzentakata's square in front of the Abasse shopping complex. Yes, there are larger Tanabata festivals such as the one in Sendai, but if you want to experience a lively yet super local atmosphere in a small town that has overcome lots of challenges, I don't think you will be disappointed by Rikuzentakata's festival. Also compared to a festival in a big city, there's actually room to walk around, which I greatly appreciated.

★★☆ Miyako/Jodogahama Beach - One of the region's most popular beaches. Great if you like swimming (I don't), but also not a bad place to just walk around and admire the view, especially from Jodogahama Bridge.

★★★ Kitayamazaki and Unosu Cliff - Some of the best views of the coastline you can get. Kitayamazaki has a small number of restaurants in the area and some hiking you can do, while Unosu Cliff is just a "see it and leave" type view, though it is quite incredible.

There is a shared taxi service you can call that will take you there, just reference the schedule here and tell them which rides you want to take. E.g. if you want depart at 10:20 AM and depart Kitayamazaki at 12:30 PM, you'd ask for 2便目 and 3便目 respectively. Ask your hotel or a friend to help if you don't want to deal with phone calls in Japanese. Round trip to Kitayamazaki is 1600 yen total which is a steal for a taxi.

★☆☆ Kuji/Kosode Ama Center - Another quaint little port town, though not as nice as Kesennuma in my opinion. I was there in the summer when the Kosode Ama Center was running ama (female divers who catch seafood by hand) demonstrations and got to watch them catch sea urchins and prepare them in front of me, which was great. However, these demos only occur from July-September on weekends/holidays, so you have to reference the schedule. Kuji also has an amber museum which is also "just fine", albeit hard to reach by public transit.

☆☆☆ Hachinohe - I rode to Hachinohe just to say that I went up the entire coast, but I'll be honest, Hachinohe did not click with me, everything seemed too scattered and far apart and nothing stood out to me, it just felt like another Japanese concrete hellscape city. Not even Miroku Yokocho was that appealing. I'm sure the nebuta festival is nice, but still. I stayed just one night and bailed and went to Morioka. Maybe I'll give it another chance someday.

★★☆ Morioka - Famous for their noodle dishes, and all-in-all I recall it having a nice atmosphere, especially around the castle ruins. Actually, I would go as far as to say that Morioka is my favorite mid-sized city in Japan, though it's hard for me to put my finger on why. The art museum is nice as a time killer. Overall worth a stop, the city itself doesn't have a ton of things but I just like it overall.

Conclusion

I hope this post inspires at least one person to consider traveling to Tohoku, and in particular along the Sanriku Coast. Yes, it's a little bit distant from the Tohoku Shinkansen route, but it's absolutely worth it, and I'm already looking forward to the next time I can go back. Iwate always scores relatively low on Japan's prefectural attractiveness rankings, which I think is absurd. Maybe it's just because it doesn't have onsens, but the coastline sights I saw were just as memorable as the ones I saw in Hokkaido.

There are many other disaster monuments/memorials that I did not visit that I would like to visit in the future, such as (going south to north):

Arahama Elementary School (Sendai)
The Miyagi Tsunami Memorial Museum (Ishinomaki)
Okawa Elementary School (Ishinomaki, though this one seems very hard to access by public transit)
Inochi wo Tsunagu Miraikan (Unosumai)
Taro Kanko Hotel (Taro)

If there are any others that people have been to that they found particularly worthwhile, I'd love to hear as well.

The Kisuki Line (Shimane/Hiroshima)

I love the Sanriku Railway!

Trip report: 10 day Golden Week trip in Tohoku, with a focus on disaster tourism up the Sanriku Coast