Part two of my Fumaoka Castle Ruins Park is Hitsome Senbonzakura, the river bank with one thousand cherry trees.

After taking in the spectacular view at the top of the Castle Ruins, I descended down via a different path back to the car park (main entrance area).

It was noon and there were a lot of people. I quickly checked out the souvenir shop and picked up a map from the promotion booth right outside the shop.

The route down to the Shioishi River was not where I came up. It was on the other side which was good. The slope was quite steep with many cherry trees and plants on the side.

The first viewing point of the bridge across Shiroishi River was the Z-shoped foot bridge surrounded by cherry trees.

Walking along the only traffic direction, a close up view of the line of cherry trees with a train track and snow-capped Zao Mountain was the best viewing spot!

Then I was lucky to catch a train passed by when I crossed the bridge and be able to get a good spot to take photos and videos.

After crossing the bridge is the Shiroishi River Sen-ou Park which has a beautiful array of flowering trees in different colors: from bright yellow to pink and red.

I couldn’t help but stopped to take many pictures and take in the wonderful view. The entire 6km of “Sakura tunnel” along Shiroshi riverside was very pleasant. The whole path took over 1.5 hours just to walk through. There is a festival area where there were food trucks, music and performances for people to enjoy.

The Ogawara Station is only a few minutes walk away. Perfect.

Tips: the 6 km Hitome Senbonzakura is between the two stations. Even though you may start at Ogawara Station rather than Funaoka Station, I think that it’s better the way around which is what I did if you are returning to Sendai Station. it is because the train will be full at Ogawara Station so you may have to stand for 30 minutes if you get on the train from Funaoka Station.

Access: Take Tohoku Line to Funaoka Station (around 30 minutes from Sendai Station), north exit. Or get off at Ogawara Station which is the next stop.