Sendai is the biggest city in Tohoku, the north-east of Honshu, with about a million people, and it wears its history lightly under a mantle of trees. The nickname is the City of Trees, because of the rows of zelkova that line its main avenues, rustling in summer and strung with thousands of lights in winter. Date Masamune, the one-eyed warlord who founded the city in 1601, chose the site on the Hirose river, and his statue sits on the stone walls of Aoba Castle, looking out over the city.
Masamune was a man of taste and ambition, famous for his dramatic helmet with a crescent moon and for sending an envoy to Europe in the early seventeenth century. His mausoleum, Zuihoden, sits in the forest on a hill outside the city, a colourful hall in black and gold. Sendai's best-known food is gyutan, grilled beef tongue, served with barley rice and oxtail soup. The Tanabata festival in early August fills the arcades with enormous streamers of paper.
The city also carries the memory of the 2011 earthquake and tsunami, which devastated the coast just to the east. Sendai's coastal plain was swept by the wave, and the area has been rebuilt with new sea defences and memorial sites, and there are museums and quiet places of remembrance. The nearby bay of Matsushima, dotted with pine-covered islets, was protected by the islands and is among the classic views of Japan.
For a rider, the city itself is easy, with fuel everywhere and good roads. The mountains to the west, such as the Zao range with its volcanic crater lake, the Okama, and the Shiroishi area offer rewarding rides. Spring brings late cherry blossoms, summer is mild, and autumn colours in the hills are glorious. Winter brings snow and closures at altitude. Eat tongue, drink sake and leave time for the castle view at sunset.