Where is Sendai?

 Sendai is a main city in Tohoku area, the north eastern part of Japan, and also is a capital of Miyagi prefecture.  Sendai has about 1 million population, this is 11th biggest city in Japan.  It takes 2 hours by Shinkansen(super express) , 6 hours by car from Tokyo, the capital of Japan. (see map1)

 Sendai's industrial structure is mainly composed by services, transport and education.   For example, large suburban shopping mall, food manufacturing factory, junction port and many high education school such as Tohoku university, the 2nd national university of Japan.

 Sendai is also famous for the city which was made by 'Masamune Date', well known military commander in age of civil war period (16th century) of Japan.  From 16th century to present day, Sendai had been developed by entrance of Tohoku area.

  "Tohoku" means "north east" in Japanese.  Tohoku area is composed of 6 prefectures, Aomori, Iwate, Akita, Yamagata, Miyagi and Fukushima.(see map2)  Major industry of Tohoku is agriculture such as rice, apple, cherry.    As it's name, Tohoku is colder than south part of Japan.   It falls large amount of snow in west half of Tohoku such as 5m to 10m in total in winter season.   On coldest day, it drop under -10 degree Celsius even in Miyagi, relatively warmer place in Tohoku.

Mission in Tohoku

 In ministry condition, major portions of Christian live in urban area in Tohoku.   Because people lives in Tohoku area has a strong unity of local community.  You can see mini shrine here and there if you go to countryside in Tohoku.  Though they don't believe hard in those icons, it is their ancestral legacy.  It is hard to missionize these people  because they are bounded by their local community.  So, most churches in Tohoku has only 10 to 20 laymen in average.   In Sendai city, mission is litte easier than other place.  There are over 100 churches in Sendai and about 5,000 people is a Christian.