What to See in Sendai - Top Sights and Attractions

Stadium in Sendai, Japan. Rakuten Seimei Park Miyagi, officially Miyagi Baseball Stadium, is a baseball stadium located in Miyaginohara Sports Park in Sendai, Miyagi Prefecture, Japan. The 30,508-seat ballpark is owned by the prefecture and operated by Rakuten, which has used it as the home field for the Tohoku Rakuten Golden Eagles of Nippon Professional Baseball since 2005. Its symmetrical playing surface is the only natural turf field in the Pacific League. An amusement park named Smile Glico Park is integrated into the stadium's left field seating and features a Ferris wheel.

Miyagi Stadium is the third-oldest NPB stadium and the oldest in the PL, built in 1950 to host countryside NPB games and amateur baseball. Lights were added in 1973 to accommodate night games and attract more professional games. The Lotte Orions began using the stadium as a semi-home that same year and played five seasons in Sendai until 1977. In 1974, the Orions brought Miyagi Stadium its first postseason games, however Japan Series games were not held in the stadium due to its relatively low capacity. Following Lotte's departure, the ballpark again hosted yearly NPB countryside games and the first of four eventual All-Star games was held in 1992.

After the 2004 NPB realignment, Rakuten created a new NPB team to be based in Miyagi Stadium and renovated it in several phases. With Major League Baseball stadiums as inspiration, the field was enlarged and the stadium's concourses were expanded, with seating being updated and capacity increased. In the outfield, two full-LED video boards were erected and the amusement park was built. The exterior of the stadium was also drastically changed. Miyagi Stadium hosted its first Climax Series and Japan Series in 2013, when the Eagles went on to win the championship.

Naming rights for the stadium have been sold in three-year increments several times since 2005. Staffing firm Fullcast and Nippon Paper Industries were the first two companies to buy the rights. Since 2014, Rakuten has purchased the stadium's naming rights, using it to promote their Kobo eReader and life insurance. The stadium has been named Rakuten Seimei Park Miyagi since 2020.^[3]

Stadium in Rifu, Japan. Miyagi Stadium, also known as the Q&A Stadium Miyagi for sponsorship reasons, is an athletic and football stadium in the town of Rifu in Miyagi Prefecture, Japan. The stadium's capacity is 49,133. The crescent-shaped roof extending past the edge of the stadium is meant to evoke images of Date Masamune, a daimyō of Mutsu Province, which included the present-day Miyagi Prefecture. From 1 April 2014, the stadium was known as the Hitomebore Stadium Miyagi, named after the main variety of rice produced in the prefecture, as the naming rights were acquired by the Miyagi Prefecture headquarters of Zen-Noh. The stadium adopted its current name on 1 April 2020 due to a sponsorship agreement with the Q&A Corporation.

Miyagi Stadium hosted three matches in the 2002 World Cup, and also hosted the 56th National Sports Festival of Japan in 2001. It is one of the planned football venues for the 2020 Summer Olympics.

In addition, Miyagi Stadium also hosted six matches at the 2012 FIFA U-20 Women's World Cup and it would become the first stadium (and to date the only stadium) to have hosted matches at both a men's FIFA World Cup and a women's FIFA U-20 World Cup.

The football field is surrounded by a nine-lane track. A large video screen and scoreboard is installed in the northern end.^[8]

Tourist attraction in Sendai, Japan. Sendai Daikannon, officially known as the Sendai Tendou Byakue Daikannon, is a large statue of Byakue Kannon bearing a gem in her hand located in Sendai, Japan.

It is among the tallest statues in the world, and is the tallest statue of a goddess, in Japan. As of 2022, it is the sixth tallest statue in the world at 100 metres (330 ft). At the time of its completion in 1991, it was the tallest statue in the world, but has since been surpassed for that title.

The statue depicts a manifestation of the Bodhisattva Kannon known as Byakue Kannon, meaning "White-robed Kannon", bearing the cintamani gem (如意宝珠, Nyoihōju) in her hand.

There is a small entry fee to enter the statue itself. Inside on the first floor are many large statues of Buddha and mythical kings. Visitors take an elevator to the 12th level then walk down the stairs and ramps to the ground. At each level there are eight Buddhas displayed in timber cabinets, 108 in all.^[11]

Shinto shrine in Sendai, Japan. Aoba Shrine is the memorial shrine of Date Masamune, located in Aoba-ku, Sendai, Miyagi Prefecture, Japan, near the site of the former Aoba Castle. The shrine was built in 1873 by petition of former retainers of the Date clan of former Sendai Domain to enshrine the deified spirit of Date Masamune under the name of Takefuruhiko-no-mikoto. This was in accordance with a practice which began in the Bakumatsu period and continued into the early Meiji period of establishing a shrine to the founders of the daimyō clan which ruled each feudal domain under the Tokugawa shogunate. Under the State Shinto ranking system, the shrine was designated as a prefectural shrine.

The current Honden dates from 1927. The torii gate was damaged in the 2011 Tōhoku earthquake and tsunami.

Its current chief priest is Katakura Shigenobu, the 16th hereditary chieftain of the Katakura clan, who served as castellans of Shirakawa Castle under the Date clan.^[17]