A bit further north. – To Sendai (and Morioka)

Today was a travel day. After a few days in Tokyo, today’s main goal was the next hotel in Sendai.
Most of the group did listen to the advice to send their big luggage ahead and only go with a week’s worth of clothes. A lot of my stuff, unfortunately, is photo gear and not clothes. And I am going to need that in the upcoming days. So full gear it is for me.
Through the subway system (thank god it’s sunday) and into the Shinkansen.
Destination Sendai. Past Fukushima. No, not the nuclear reactor. That one is quite a distance away from the city.
As usual, direct and prompt delivery.

Over to the hotel. Too early (as usual) . So check in only. No access to the rooms for some time. Instead we go into the city for a bit and have lunch. Cold soba with me this time. Not being able to read the ticket machine makes this a bit trickier. Even with Google lens. Cold fox is most likely not the dead animal.
Next step: getting rid of the ticket. Fortunately we have been lingering around the door for so long that a lady was coming out to check the machine. (which was not broken) and took care of our tickets and asked if we wanted soba or udon noodles. With pictures.
After marking our orders, she put them under a piece of string to keep them in order, and the cooks took care of the rest. But then the announcement… – I don’t know what the Japanese word is for the things I ordered.  …
Well once I figured out that I just have to check where my ticket goes on the counter that hurdle was solved too.

By the way. The usual patrons just added their ticket directly to the queue (string). No intervention from the staff needed.

After the good lunch we walked a bit through the main shopping strip where  different groups set up the decorations for the next days’ festivities. Seems this is a good after-school activity as well. Back at the hotel the rooms were almost ready so after a short wait we could go up to make them dirty again.
Which was good because it was almost time to catch our train to Morioka.
Express train (Shinkansen) again because it is a bit of a schlepp to get there using the local trains. And we wanted to watch a summer parade scheduled to start shortly after 18:00 .
The whole trip was sunshine with nice vistas in between the tunnels. Except when we came to our destination. There, the sky got darker, promising an early evening. And right on cue it started to drizzle when we left the station building.

The first few meters were underground anyway, and the rain was not too bad. So everyone kept going. Past the first traffic lights onto a  small bridge. Now the rain got stronger and by the time we passed the next street everyone ran for cover to escape the downpour.

The question now: Will this be just a very expensive trip for nothing or just a hint of the weather gods to take a shower more often?
A few minutes later the rain got a bit lighter and the better informed locals decided that the rain will have stopped at 18:00. So on with everyone. Thankful that the boardwalks were roofed. And right on cue the rain stopped.
Lucky enough to find a spot directly at the curb, we set up our stuff (no towels were used in this endeavour) and waited for the procession to begin.
Instead of just starting at one space, groups poured in from at least two directions at once.
The one further up doing a choreography until the main group caught up.
One of the participants caught on to the foreign guests (us) and decided to bless us  with a special welcome in English. 

Everyone dancing and singing while playing the drum. Add to that the flutists and dedicated pace makers, and you had a mix of all ages representing their clubs and associations.
I can only guess but I  think we saw kindergartens,  senior citizen homes, basketball and baseball clubs and a lot more.
After an hour – the procession was still in full swing – it was already time to get back to catch the return train.