KESENNUMA
気仙沼
Kesennuma city is the hub of the area and with a population of over 60,000, it also ranks as the 5th biggest city in Miyagi. Due to it being screwed over a bit from the 3.11 disaster, people from all over Japan come and live here to help with recovery. They usually say the same thing: "I came for the volunteering, stayed for charm (and the lack of infrastructure to get out of Kesennuma)." It is surrounded by mountains on one side and the sea (and one of Japan’s busiest fishing ports) on the other and thus retains a natural beauty and small town charm while still having all the amenities (well almost all) that a bigger city has to offer, making it the best town in Miyagi.
Surrounding areas: Karakuwa, Minamisanriku, Motoyoshi
Surrounding areas: Karakuwa, Minamisanriku, Motoyoshi
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Shopping
Aeon: Literally where it’s all at! This shopping center is the beating heart of Kes and comes complete with a well stocked supermarket, several clothes stores, a photo shop, liquor shop, pharmacy, stationery, homewares, and for those of you missing the comforts of home…a KFC and a Baskin Robbins ice cream store. There are also a Chuuka Ryouri ("Chinese" food) restaurant now. This is a great place to meet other ALTs on hot summer evenings as well as see your students (from Motoyoshi as well) on the weekends. Maiya: (left-hand side of Route 45 coming from the south.) This grocery store is not as big or as well-stocked as Jusco, but less busy and a bit cheaper, plus I personally think the fruit and veg section is often a lot better than Jusco’s. Plus it has the benefit of a having a great 100-yen shop. A great place to buy bits and bobs for your new apartment, stationery for school and presents for friends back home. A pain to get to if you don't have a car though. Onoya Sports: This sport shop carries most goods. Most students buy their sporting supplies here. Check it out! Geo Video: Has all the latest DVDs, video games and videos for rental. Take your Alien Registration Card to join up and be careful when renting videos – if a video has a red kanji sticker on it’s spine, it has been dubbed into Japanese (nothing worse than getting home and popping in your video only to discover that it’s in Japanese!) Those without stickers are in their original language with Japanese subtitles. Onoya Sports: This sport shop carries most goods. Most students buy their sporting supplies here. Check it out! Uniqlo: a place to find clothing that might fit a non-Japanese human body. Somewhat "trendy" but is more of a style-basics store. Can sell clothes for cheap (though I suppose a little pricier than Aeon) but someone somewhere along the supply chain will be screwed for that. Don't worry though! I hear Uniqlo Co. is slowly making improvements. Be forewarned: depending on your own fashion sense, you *may or may not* run into someone with the same article of clothing as you. Shimamura: a really cheap clothing store that sells some home furnishings like rugs too. You may run into some students here. Cafes and places to chill
Anchor Coffee- two locations:
Niji no mori (虹の森) Bakery - easily missable, this bakery is located at the base of the hill on the way to K-Wave. Really good pastries, and if you have time to kill you can order a drink and chill on the second floor. |
Restaurants and Bars
Goku Ramen: A delicious ramen shop down on the ground next to the Plaza Hotel. Tsukasa: This is a good bar/ramen/yakiniku restaurant. The owner is a very nice guy and loves talking about photography. They also serve some rare beers here that you wouldn’t see at most places. Across the Daichi Pachinko parlor on the second floor. Etoile: The best cake in Kesennuma! Brunch: Great place for light lunches and dinners. Schools may have an enkai here but rather unlikely unless the school is trying to save a lot of money. Bentos may also come from here. Jyan Jyan and Yamanaka Ya are two popular yaki-niku restaurants worth mentioning. Jyan Jyan is across the street from Geo and Yamanaka ya is across from Kubo and K's Denki on that other main strip. Godai: located across the street from Shimamura and a rivaling Chinese restaurant. Godai has just about anything you want to eat at a Japanese restaurant: ramen, curry and rice, various sea foods, lots of rice dishes, fried foods, etc. There is literally 7 pages of menu at this restaurant. They DO specialize in miso ramen, so if you want ramen this place is pretty great. Don no Shibaraku: a donburi (some food substance over rice) restaurant attached to a house. Basically run by one mother, so it can be a little slow, but the food is great. Their curry-katsudon is fantastic, but other favorites include their salmon-don and the chicken katsudon. The restaurant is a little small so if you have a large party you may want to think about eating somewhere else, especially if the restaurant is busy, but for smaller parties its fine if you can wait. At times you can see the husband and son just being lazy in the back while the mother does all the hard work. So come and support her labor with your money! Tourist Attractions Iwate-ken: Kesennuma is also conveniently located right on the border with Iwate, which has some great tourist attractions on offer, including Gebikei Gorge (where you can go punting down a river while the boatmen serenade you – I kid you not!) and Hiraizumi (an amazing old temple complex, well worth checking out for its gold covered shrine alone). Iwate is also famous for its Ski resorts – Appi and Getto, being 2 of the better ones. Ichinoseki is about an hour away on the Ofunato train line. This is a good place to take the shinkansen to, and then train over to Kesennuma. There is also ice skating in Senmaya on the Ofunato Line. Oshima Island: Popular for its beaches in the summer, which are mainly under construction. Also has a lift to the top of the mountain that is fun to ride. If you're adveturous you can search for the "Kyu Kyu Beach" with the squeaky sand. Also home of the annual MAJET Leavers Party*. Bits and Bobs The Little Embassy: Despite its relatively small size, Kesennuma has a surprisingly high number of foreign residents – besides us, there are a number of Chinese ladies who are married to Japanese men, and a large number of Filipino and Indonesian fisherman, who live in the city. In order to cater to the needs of all these foreigners, Kesennuma has its own “Little Embassy” which is based in the 1-10 building. Everyone who works there is extremely friendly and helpful and they hold events throughout the year including sports festivals, karaoke, international food festivals etc. They’re nice people and if you have any problems, they’ll go out of their way to help. They can help with booking tickets, phoning places in Japan for you, train times etc… Alice Box: Kesennuma's very own manga cafe. There are tons of manga along the wall as well as free wifi. There's a man there who serves food and drinks. Usually there's anime music playing in the background on a large TV but I think upon request you can watch some sort of anime on it. Like other manga cafes you can stay overnight for about 1500 yen. |
Updated July 1st, 2016 by the Soothesayer
