I was rarely a tourist in my life, I lived life wherever i was. 3 years in Sendai.

 

The Warlord or Daimyo Date Masamune was also known as the One Eyed Lord who lost his eye to an arrow while in battle. His residence while Sendai was the Aoba Castle the site from which this drawing was done, now overlooking the City of Sendai from across the Hirose river.  

Date Masamune (伊達 政宗, September 5, 1567 – June 27, 1636) was a regional ruler of Japan's Azuchi–Momoyama period through early Edo period. Heir to a long line of powerful daimyō in the Tōhoku region, he went on to found the modern-day city of Sendai. An outstanding tactician, he was made all the more iconic for his missing eye, as Masamune was often called dokuganryū (独眼竜), or the "One-Eyed Dragon of Ōshū".^[1] As a legendary warrior and leader, Masamune is a character in a number of Japanese period dramas.

The dragon is a mystical creature that is commonly found flying around in the imaginations of most rural Japanese folks especially those living in the mountain temples of the Dewa Sanzen or the Thrree mountains of Haguro. This drawing was done from a 400 year old wooden sculpture hidden in the wall of a temple door. 

Have you ever heard of Matsu Basho, the Japanese Poet a Haiku master, Mystique and Traveler monk who roamed the countryside of Japan visiting the most talked about exciting places in the Tohoku Region of Honshu Island of Japan. I tried to follow in his footsteps when I had the chance to visit places while living for three years in Sendai, Japan. Basho was here at one time standing on these footsteps and uttering his haiku and written down by his travelling companion, of the Mystical Mount Haguro.

Matsuo Basho* in 1694 described Haguro as filled with miraculous inspiration and sacred awe. We can add to this the feeling of a strong sense of history, rooted in spiritual and religious beliefs lasting well over 1,000 years. Little can beat walking on steps constructed in 1648 that took 13 years to complete.

                                               Spring Sakura Festival at local parks.

We are all waiting for that moment of Satori to happen just to lighten up what is otherwise a mundane existence. There is no glory nor defeat there is only doing or not doing, being or not being, there is only an act. Choose your poison or your elixir and  live this life a moment at a time if you cannot live a breath at a time. Kampai!!! Cheers!