0918–21 Feb 2026 ) King Gnu in Sendai: Music, Zunda, and Ox Tongue

Photo by Dawn Westveld on Unsplash

I visited Sendai, a city located in North East Japan, to attend a concert performed by King Gnu, a Japanese band. Since today marked the inaugural day of the three-day weekend because of the national holiday next Monday, the ticket gate of the Shinkansen at Tokyo Railway Station was very crowded. Luckily, as I had secured my seat last month, I could sleep for about an hour during the journey.

As soon as I arrived, I headed straight to the market for luncheon because my schedule in Sendai was quite tight. I had some fresh sashimi. The red one was tuna, but the white one was a deep-sea fish called “aburabouzu”, which apparently is only available on the day it’s caught. While I bought it as the shop assistant suggested, I regret not choosing scallop instead of tuna.

Sashimi from Sendai. The contents of the can are whisky with soda.

Upon that, I returned to the station to buy a zunda milkshake. Zunda is edamame paste. Drinking it, I went to the ruins of Sendai Castle. There is a statue of the famous warlord Masamune Date, and it’s one of the most iconic photo spots in this city. Google Maps said it was 35 minutes by bus from Sendai Station or 50 minutes on foot. I opted for the latter.

On the way, I bought a limited-edition drink from a convenience store. It’s available nationwide, but I couldn’t find it in any stores in Tokyo. Today, I finally found it at the fourth shop I checked, combining both in Tokyo and Sendai. The store right by Sendai Station had a sign saying they wouldn’t be restocking it anymore. Hence, I was glad to find it at another branch a little further away.

Zunda Shake. While this is a pouched shake, there are also shakes in a regular papaer cup.

I strolled to the castle ruins savouring the milkshake, but the latter part of the 2.5km one-way journey was quite an uphill climb. By the time I arrived, I was sweating. After taking photos of the statue and enjoying the view from the hilltop, I returned the way I came and headed back to the station. From the bus stop on the opposite side of the castle ruins, I caught a shuttle bus directly to the venue. I slept soundly on the bus.

Owing to having bought the merchandise for collection at the venue, I waited for my reserved slot time to pick it up. The packaging was also cute, so I cannot bring myself to throw it away. Around the venue, there is nothing except for the arena.

By the way, King Gnu allowed the audience take photos or shoot videos throughout their performance. This is ground-breaking for live concerts held in my homeland. Therefore, I’ll leave some of the photos here. The only downside is that I cannot embed MP4 videos on a Medium article. Nevertheless, please do check out the music video for their latest song if you like.

The stage is located on the centre of the arena. The audiences sit on 360°.

Satoru Iguchi, the vocalist of King Gnu (taken by me)

[embed]The music video of “AIZO”, the latest song by King Gnu.

Once the performance ended, a staggered exit began. My section was called fairly early. For this show, arena ticket holders weren’t allowed to bring bags into their seats, so they had to deposit their belongings at the cloakroom. However, due to my stand seat, I was able to take my backpack with me, which I believe allowed me to overtake those who had used the cloakroom and board the bus quicker.

However, the bus journey from the venue to Sendai Station seemed to be congested. Whilst the outbound journey took 40 minutes, the inbound journey took about an hour. I have a bus booked for Tokyo at 23:10, so I need to buy souvenirs and have dinner in about an hour and a half. Honestly, I was quite frustrated as we arrived 20–30 minutes later than anticipated.

Hagi no Tsuki. The packaging and the palatable pudding.

Remembering that a souvenir shop on the second floor of the station closes at 22:00, I headed straight there. I bought sliced ox tongue and “Hagi no Tsuki”, a famous Sendai confection. It is a moon-shaped sweet with custard cream wrapped in a soft yellow sponge cake. I absolutely adore it. Also, I personally consider it to be one of Japan's two greatest regional confections. The other, incidentally, is “Shingen Mochi” from Yamanashi Prefecture.

The final and toughest part was relishing in ox tongue. Sendai is renowned for its beef tongue in Japan. When this trip was confirmed for the concert, I had decided that I’d have ox tongue for dinner. However, due to the late hour, restaurants had started to close one by one. I had to find a place that was still open after 22:00, but the diners I’d had my eye on either had long queues or, by the time I arrived, it was after the last orders had already been taken.

The ox tongue set meal and beer (taken by me)

Whilst I considered giving up and just eating at KFC, I couldn’t bring myself to and decided to dine in at an izakaya, not a specialist ox tongue place. Going to an izakaya where smoking was allowed was unavoidable, but I was satisfied that I managed to indulge in the tongue in Sendai. However, for me, who having prepared and enjoyed five ox tongues myself over two years of living in London, the beef tongue served in the diner seems small and thin to me.

The set meal I ordered came with six slices of the tongue, white rice, and beef tail soup. Albeit I really wanted to finish the soup, I was about to get on an overnight coach and was worried about its diuretic effect. Therefore, I left most of it. What a shame. Exhausted, I listened to the radio, which I tune into every Saturday night, and stayed awake until the programm finished at 25:00.