Bunka Yokochō

photo by lumoplank · CC0

At Hassen, eight pan-fried dumplings cost 580 yen: it closes when the dough runs out.

The alley branches off the side of the arcade, and after ten steps the light changes: low ceilings, fifty signs in a row, and in the evening customers standing on the threshold because inside there are eight seats. At Hassen, a long-established Chinese restaurant, gyōza (pan-fried dumplings) cost 580 yen for eight, and they stop frying them when the dough runs out. At Suzuya, during the day, the monaka with butter and bean paste costs 440 yen.

The layout dates from 1924, when a row of shops called Higashi-Hyakkenten-gai opened here; the following year a cinema, the Bunka Kinema, opened inside it, and the alley took its name from that: it means ‘alley of culture’. Today there are more than fifty restaurants and taverns here, and in Sendai everyone calls it Bun-yoko. It is the older of the two alleys of Ichibanchō: the other, the Iroha, came into being twenty-two years later, with the reconstruction.

ℹ️ Public street, always open to walk through; opening hours and closing days vary from venue to venue, and the city's tourist board does not give general ones. Hassen is open 17:00–22:30 and closed on Sundays and public holidays, Suzuya 12:00–19:00 with irregular closures. One minute's walk from Aobadōri-Ichibanchō metro station.

🚉 Aoba-dōri · 7 min walk

Sources: sentabi.jp · sentabi.jp · travel.rakuten.co.jp

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