Day 2, Sendai - Matsushima, 30/10
After a short night, during which we heavily
felt the jet lag and woke up several times our first day in
Japan began early at 6 o'clock in the morning. After some
souvenir photos in front of the youth hostel we made our way
to the civil airport of Sendai. The schedule for that day
was already very strict because we also wanted to go to Matsushima
airbase.
During half an hour on a grey and hazy morning we took some
photos of, for European relations, rare civil aircraft at
Sendai and continued to Matsushima.
Sendai Airport
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 Arriving
at the Matsushima airbase there we were welcomed by
three F-4EJ Phantoms taking off and disappearing in the clouds.
That sight pleased us a lotbut originally we came there to
see the blue Mitsubishi F-2Bs trainer aircraft of Rinji F2B
Hikotai. The morning was  already
busy with 7 F-2Bs and we experienced our first control at
a military airfield:
"Excuse me, may I ask you one question?" "When
did you arrive?" "When will you leave?" "May
we take a photo of you?" Nothing to be afraid of,
the two officers were really polite and very obliging and
also allowed us to continue taking photos while they checked
our passports. Fortunately we already prepared some copies
of our passports at home together with our tour schedule and
an explanation what we were doing. That was even translated
in Japanese. These papers helped us a lot of times during
our trip to finish the checks in no time.
Matsushima Airbase
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 During
the morning it cleared up and the 4 Recce-Phantoms from Hyakuri
that we spotted on the ramp in the morning even caught some
sunshine during their take-off. When there was no activity
we took photos of dragonflies and spotted spiders. Up in the
air in the afternoon were also 8 F-2Bs and we changed to the
other side of the airfield to take some photos during taxiing.
Unfortunately the clouds came out again and we noticed that
it did not make a lot of sense to continue photography after
4pm up in the north of our trip at that time of the year.
Regarding the fact that we still had a very long drive towards
Misawa it was even better to leave early.
Once again our supper was a noodle soup in a highway restaurant.
We have already planned a stay at a youth hostel near Misawa,
which we did find quite fast, but unfortunately it was closed
at that time of the year. Bad luck and time for our first
encounter with one of the famous "Love Hotels":
the stay at the "Lake Hotel" near Mukaiyama was
not too bad and we even had a warm room and a hot shower there.
Paying for the room (5.800Yen) though was a bit difficult,
as we could not communicate very well with the owner. During
the rest of the trip we should find out that this was one
of the best and even cheapest hotels during our trip!
-> Misawa
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