Most of this page is not a list of offers. It is where a saving structurally exists in Sendai and who can use it, because that is the part that is still true next year. Offers with an end date get their own section and remove themselves the day after they finish.
No travel-discount campaign is running
Miyagi's accommodation-subsidy campaigns have all ended and we could not find a replacement. If you have seen one advertised, check its dates before you plan around it — one official page is still advertising a call centre for a campaign that finished on 31 July 2026.
HOW DISCOUNTS WORK HERE
Where the savings are
These do not expire. They are how the fares and admissions are structured.
Onsen
A hot spring without the overnight rate
Published day-use bathing at Akiu and Sakunami runs about ¥900 to ¥1,650, against a night's stay.
Who can use it
Anyone. Some properties close their baths to day visitors on set weekdays, and a few take the last entry an hour before closing.
How to get it
Turn up within the day-use hours. Most of the properties below state that no reservation is needed; check the individual page, because the ones that do require booking do not advertise it loudly.
Akiu and Sakunami are both under an hour from Sendai Station and both sell bathing on its own. Checked prices, all from the operators' own pages: Hotel Hananoyu at Akiu, ¥1,200, 10:30-14:00, closed Tuesdays and Fridays. Hotel Zuiho at Akiu, ¥1,320 plus a ¥70 bathing tax, 10:00-15:00. Hotel New Mitoya at Akiu, ¥1,650 since 1 April 2026. At Sakunami, Ooedo Onsen Monogatari is ¥900 on a weekday and ¥1,200 at the weekend, open 7:00-10:00 and 15:00-24:00, which is the only one here you can use late. Green Green is ¥1,100 for 90 minutes plus the ¥70 tax. Yunohara Hotel is ¥1,000 on a weekday and ¥1,500 at the weekend. There is said to be a public bath at Akiu run by the local association; it has no official web page, so we have no price for it and will not repeat one.
¥1,000 for the exhibition hall and the planetarium together, against ¥1,220 bought separately.
Who can use it
Anyone. High school students pay ¥610 for the set against ¥700 separately; elementary and junior high ¥400 against ¥500. Pre-school children are free.
How to get it
Ask for the set ticket at the counter at Sendai Astronomical Observatory.
The exhibition room and the planetarium are ¥610 each for an adult, and the set is ¥1,000. It is a small saving stated plainly on the official price list, and it is the kind of thing that only helps if you know to ask before you pay for the first one. Evening stargazing sessions are separate and cheap at ¥200. If you somehow end up going three times, the ¥3,000 annual pass has already paid for itself.
¥1,420 for one day across the same area the two-day pass covers for ¥2,930.
Who can use it
Anyone holding a valid non-Japanese passport, both when buying and on the day of use. The passport is checked at purchase.
How to get it
JR EAST Travel Service Center on the third floor of Sendai Station, or a reserved-seat ticket machine with a passport reader. Sold year round, up to one month ahead. There is no online version.
The SENDAI AREA PASS covers JR between Sendai, Matsushima, Matsushimakaigan, Yamadera and Shiroishi, the whole Sendai Airport Access Line, Loople Sendai, Sendai city buses and the subway — and, easily missed, the Miyagi Kotsu bus between Sendai Station and Akiu Otaki, plus the Abukuma Express between Tsukinoki and Abukuma. The Akiu bus alone is about ¥2,460 return, so if the onsen is on your list the pass has paid for itself before you board anything else. Child (6-11) is ¥720. Two caveats. The official pages state only the passport condition and say nothing about Temporary Visitor status, unlike the JR EAST PASS family — if your residence status is anything other than a short visit, confirm at the counter before you rely on it. And no effective date is printed next to the ¥1,420, so it is a current price rather than a guaranteed one.
The subway day ticket is ¥220 cheaper at the weekend
¥620 instead of ¥840, on Saturdays, Sundays, public holidays and over the New Year period.
Who can use it
Anyone travelling on one of those days. Child fares are ¥310 and ¥420.
How to get it
Ticket vending machines only — this is not sold at a counter.
Sendai sells two subway one-day tickets. The ¥840 one is valid on any day; the ¥620 one is restricted to Saturdays, Sundays, holidays and the year-end period. On a qualifying day both are on sale and the cheaper one is simply the one to buy, which is easy to miss at a machine in a hurry. Either version also earns the admission discounts above.
¥2,930 for two consecutive days over the same area the one-day pass covers, with no nationality condition on the city's page.
Who can use it
Anyone. The Sendai City Transportation Bureau page lists no nationality condition.
How to get it
JR East ticket counters and reserved-seat machines inside the free area, JR EAST Travel Service Center, and major travel agencies. Sendai Airport Station machines sell it for same-day use only. A digital version exists on the TOHOKU MaaS site at the same price.
The Sendai Marugoto Pass covers the same ground as the one-day area pass, and that really does mean the same: JR to Matsushima, Yamadera and Shiroishi, the airport line, Loople Sendai, city buses, the subway, the Miyagi Kotsu bus to Akiu Otaki and the Abukuma Express between Tsukinoki and Abukuma. So the choice between the two is not about where you can go. It is two things: this one lasts a second consecutive day, and the city's page attaches no nationality condition to it. Child is ¥1,470. The price rose on 14 March 2026 — treat any figure below ¥2,930 as out of date, including on Loople Sendai's own front page, which was still showing an older one when this was checked. One inconsistency worth knowing: the English product site prints a non-Japanese-passport line beside this pass, while the city's page states no such condition. Ask at the counter if it matters to you.
Zuihoden ¥570 → ¥460 and the Sendai City Museum ¥460 → ¥360, for showing a ticket you already bought.
Who can use it
Anyone holding a Loople Sendai one-day ticket, the Loople and subway combined one-day ticket, a city bus or subway one-day ticket, or the Sendai Marugoto Pass.
How to get it
Show the ticket at the admission window before you pay. Nothing to claim in advance and nothing to print.
This is the discount most visitors walk straight past. A Loople Sendai one-day ticket is ¥630, and Zuihoden alone hands ¥110 of that back — ¥100 off for high school students, ¥50 off for younger children. The Sendai City Museum applies its 30-person group rate to any of those ticket holders, which takes the permanent exhibition from ¥460 to ¥360. Hotel Metropolitan Sendai takes 5% off dining. Two more sites, the Aoba Castle Exhibition Hall and Osaki Hachimangu, are on the same list, but neither publishes what the discount is worth — the Transportation Bureau explicitly refuses to print amounts and tells you to ask at the desk, so we are not printing one either.
Every entry here carries a published end date and disappears the day after it.
Coupon 1 April 2026 to 31 March 2027
Free coupon book for Akiu, Sakunami and Jogi
¥100 to ¥300 off day-use bathing at seven properties, plus discounts at shops and restaurants in west Sendai.
Who can use it
Anyone. There is no purchase, no registration and no nationality condition.
How to get it
Download the PDF and print it, or open the digital coupons on a phone. Sendai's own tourism site hosts both.
The Sendai Western Area Marutoku Coupon covers Akiu, Sakunami, Jogi and Izumi. The bathing discounts are the useful part: Hotel Hananoyu ¥200 off, Sakan ¥100 off, Sorai ¥100 off, Tenshukaku Shizen Koen's Ichitaro no Yu ¥900 → ¥850, Kamigane Onsen ¥600 → ¥500, Yunohara Hotel ¥100 off, and Green Green ¥300 off. On a ¥1,100 bath that last one is over a quarter of the price. Digital coupons started on 1 April 2026; the printed sheet still works.
Adult ¥1,300 → ¥1,200, university and high school ¥1,000 → ¥900, elementary and junior high ¥600 → ¥500. Covers up to five people.
Who can use it
Anyone presenting the voucher, for a party of up to five. It cannot be combined with an advance ticket price or with any other discount.
How to get it
Print the voucher from the museum's discount page, or show it on a phone screen at the ticket window.
The Sendai City Museum's special exhibition of Tohoku Buddhist painting runs from 18 September to 8 November 2026, and the museum publishes its own ¥100 discount voucher for it. It is a small saving, but it is the museum's own, it is free to take, and one voucher covers a group of five. The voucher page itself states no expiry — the date here is the last day of the exhibition, which is when it stops being usable.
Nothing with a published end date is running right now. This section is empty more often than not, and an empty one is the honest answer — we do not list an offer that cannot tell us when it ends.
DATES TO KNOW
Dates that change what things cost
Not discounts. Changes with a date on them, which retire themselves once they have happened.
ChangeScheduled, not yet approved Until 30 September 2026
Loople and city bus fares are set to rise on 1 October
Until then: Loople one-day ¥630, Loople and subway combined ¥920. After: ¥700 and ¥1,000.
Who can use it
Everyone riding a Sendai city bus or Loople Sendai. The subway is not part of this revision.
How to get it
Nothing to do. The point is that a price you read in an older guide is about to be wrong in the other direction.
Sendai's Transportation Bureau filed to revise city bus fares on 23 March 2026, targeting roughly 15% more fare revenue, with an intended start of 1 October 2026. A single Loople ride goes from ¥260 to ¥300, the one-day ticket from ¥630 to ¥700, and the combined Loople and subway ticket from ¥920 to ¥1,000. Those figures come from the Bureau's own detail table, linked below; the announcement page carries the date and the revenue target but not the amounts. This is an application to the Tohoku District Transport Bureau, not an approved fare, so treat both the date and the numbers as proposed. Two things follow: the ¥630 arithmetic on this page holds only until then, and the subway one-day tickets are absent from the revision documents entirely, so they appear to be unaffected — the Bureau does not say so in as many words.
Tax-free shopping stops happening at the till on 1 November
Same 10% either way. What changes is when you get it: at the shop until 31 October, at the airport after.
Who can use it
Non-residents without Japanese nationality holding Temporary Visitor, Diplomat or Official status. That is the current rule and the National Tax Agency states it plainly.
How to get it
Until 31 October, spend ¥5,000 or more in one shop on one day and show your passport at the till. From 1 November, you pay the tax, then claim it back at customs on the way out.
From 1 November 2026 Japan moves to a refund system: you pay consumption tax in the shop, and it is returned once customs confirms at departure that the goods have left the country. Three details matter for planning. The split between general goods and consumables disappears, and with it the ¥500,000 ceiling on consumables — one ¥5,000 floor applies to everything. Customs has to confirm the export within 90 days of purchase, or there is no refund at all. And shops that have not moved to the electronic system by 31 October 2026 lose their tax-free licence, so expect the list of participating shops to shrink. The National Tax Agency has said the detailed guidance on how the refund actually works is still to come, so the mechanics at the airport are not yet documented.