Sendai

Date Masamune's mausoleum, a Momoyama-style hall in gold leaf and colour on a hill of cedars. Wartime bombing burned it and it was rebuilt in 1979, and from the gate it is a fair climb up a mossy stone slope to reach it.

The castle site on Mount Aoba never had a keep, even when it was built. Stone walls and Masamune's equestrian statue are what remain. From the lookout beside the statue you see the city and, in clear weather, out to the Pacific.

Built by Masamune in 1607, its black-lacquered main hall with gold fittings is a National Treasure. On the night of 14 January, at Dontosai, New Year decorations are burned on a great bonfire while worshippers in white loincloths file around it.

Some 260 pine-covered islets scatter across the bay, earning it a place among Japan's Three Views. It is about 40 minutes from Sendai on the Senseki line, and on the cruise boats gulls follow the wake and snatch snacks from your hand.

The Zen temple at Matsushima that Masamune revived, its main hall a National Treasure. Caves and stone Buddhas carved by monks line the cliff beside the approach, and the painted sliding doors inside the hall cannot be photographed.

An avenue of four rows of zelkova with a walkable green strip down the middle. In December the trees are wound with lights for the Pageant of Starlight, and for the September jazz festival a stage goes up on every corner.

A 55m waterfall with two separate ways to see it: a lookout above and a slope down to the basin. The lower path is slippery with wet rock, and the bus from Sendai station takes over an hour, so note the return times first.

A temple that seems to cling to a rock face, with over a thousand stone steps from the gate to the inner sanctuary. Basho wrote his cicada poem here. It lies in Yamagata prefecture, yet the Senzan line reaches it from Sendai station in about an hour.

Around seventy greengrocers and fishmongers line an alley 5 minutes' walk from Sendai station. The name means morning market, but trading runs into the day, and on Sundays and holidays many stalls stay shut and the alley goes quiet.

A school kept as the 2011 tsunami left it after the water reached the second floor. Children and residents survived by sheltering on the roof. Bent railings and the waterline on classroom walls remain, and entry costs nothing.

Toyo Ito's library and gallery, opened in 2001: a glass box held up by thirteen lattice tubes of steel pipe. It faces the zelkova avenue of Jozenji-dori and is free to wander into, a handy refuge when it rains.

Nikka founder Masataka Taketsuru's second whisky distillery, built in 1969 in the Sakunami valley where the Hirose and Nikkawa rivers meet. The Senzan Line gets you there in under an hour. Tours must be booked ahead and finish with a tasting.

Long ranked first shrine of old Mutsu province, a walk from Hon-Shiogama Station on the Senseki Line. The main approach is 202 stone steps, so many take the gentler side slope instead. Its own Shiogama cherry blooms later than ordinary trees.

A 100m white Kannon statue rising over the Izumi ward suburbs, erected in 1991. Inside it is hollow: ride the elevator to the top, then descend on foot past Buddhist figures set on every floor. Drivers spot it from the expressway north of the city.

A crater lake on the Zao range at the Miyagi-Yamagata border, its water shifting from emerald to blue with the light. The Zao Echo Line shuts for winter and reopens to cars from late April to early November. Fog is frequent; go in the morning.

A deep ravine beside Naruko Onsen in Osaki, jammed with leaf-peepers from the tail end of October into the opening days of November. At the lookout people wait for a Rikuu East Line train to slip into the tunnel above. The spa town also makes kokeshi dolls.

Opened in 2015 near Nakanosakae Station in Miyagino ward. One big tank recreates the Sanriku coast, sardine shoals and oyster rafts included. Dolphins and sea lions perform on a fixed timetable, worth checking before you plan the route.