Matsushima Bay

Finally catching up from last weekend’s adventure to Matsushima Bay… We again went up north, but this time a little further. It was almost a 4 hour drive up there.

Matsushima Bay is described as one of the “Three Views of Japan”. It was determined by some dude back in the 1600’s. I don’t know what his criteria was for designating a “view” of Japan, but Matsushima Bay is one of them. It’s kind of a mini-mission of mine to see all three “views”. The bay is known for having over 260 little islands scattered across the bay with pine trees on them.

We arrived on Friday afternoon right around 4pm because I didn’t have to work that day. We rented an airbnb right in the bay. Once we parked, we didn’t have to drive again all weekend. We just walked everywhere. The kids loved the place we stayed. We did too honestly. It wasn’t the best weather all weekend either, so we enjoyed just staying in a lot.

The first evening, we took a walk around the bay to scope everything out. Pretty much everything shut down at 5pm. There were 2 little restaurants open, so we chose one of those to eat at. Then we walked to a few of the islands that had bridges to them. Since everyone disappeared at 5pm, including tourists, we had all the islands to ourselves. It was pretty sweet.

The next morning we got up and had a big breakfast or pancakes, eggs, and fruit. Then we set sail, literally. We went down to the docks to get on a tour boat to take us around the island. It was supposed to rain starting in the afternoon, so we wanted to get on a morning boat. It was cloudy and a little chilly, but it was still enjoyable.

Pretty much right after we got back to shore, you could see the rain start to come across the bay.

So, since it started raining we went into this little shop where you can roast your own fish cakes over a grill. It looked like they were rice crackers, but they were actually fish cakes. So we each took a bite and then walked across the street to throw them away. Nasty.

Then we got some lunch at a restaurant that overlooked the bay. The food was delicious, but you couldn’t see too much into the bay.

After lunch we went back to the house for a few hours and just hung out. They had a little exercise trampoline and treadmill. It kept the kids busy for hours. After the rain stopped we took one more adventure out for the day. We walked across the big bridge to the main island. I think it was only a few dollars to walk across and the kids were free.

We walked back to the house and stopped by a local shop that sold Matsushima brewed beer. After we put the kids to bed, we sampled those.

On our last day, we checked out in the morning and then did a little more sightseeing. There is a famous temple with way more history than we could understand. Originally from the 800’s, then rebuilt in the 1600’s. It might have ended up being our favorite part of the trip honestly, and we were on the fence whether or not to even visit it. Its called Zuiganji Temple. Unfortunately they wouldn’t let us take any pictures of the inside. But it was just peaceful and cool walking through it. And the kids were super well behaved and just let us calmly walk through it. Here is a picture of the outside, but it really just doesn’t capture the feeling. It almost looks like a horse barn from the outside.

On the way back to our car before the long ride home we stopped at a little shop for some shaved ice. When we ordered them, we had no clue they were going to be this big. When they brought Caroline and Nathan each their own, we were like, “whoops!”. So they ate about 25% each, but it was fun and worth it. A good ending to our visit.