I know, I know, I am six months behind posting about our trip to Matsushima Bay. I am staying up late all by myself tonight because Robert is gone snowshoeing in Hakkodas overnight with his friends. So you get a bonus post:)
On base, we have an travel office, ITT, that specializes in travel around Misawa, within Japan and abroad. Usually their organized trips are more expensive than what I would want to pay for our family. So we get ideas of places to go from them, but then drive and explore on our own.
This particular trip to Matsushima Bay is worth the money. It is a four hour drive bus ride down to Sendai area, tour guide escorts us and tells us about the most significant places, and the boat ride to view the islands is included as well. Last September, I decided to sign up and to take just Katya and Alex on this fun daytrip.
Matsushima is considered one of the three most famous scenic places in Japan (another one is in Kyoto and Hiroshima area). It is most well-known for its panoramic view of the islands and really cool bridges. It’s quite a small town with around 16,000 residents, but there is so much to do.
Our first stop after we got off the bus was Matsushima’s famous shop that bakes fried oyster bread. We were starving. This yummy bread had oysters in curry sauce inside. Oishi-oishi! The kids loved it but I had to pick out the oysters and eat them myself.
Next, following our tour group we visited the Zuiganji temple—the most renowned Zen temple in Tohoku district. It was originally built in 828 and rebuilt in 1609. The museum inside displayed many treasures, statues of important people, etc. This is when I was especially grateful that Mark stayed home with Robert.
This is the man who tried to make our temple tour very informative and interesting. I could hardly understand his accent—probably because when you add two accents (mine, in my head and his), it just doesn’t work.
Although the weather wasn’t cooperative the day, we decided to explore more exciting parts of Matsushima.
But first, we headed over to the Aquarium.
The size of the Aquarium was smaller than the one in Aomori, it seemed. Their exhibits were average.
The highlight of the visit was the opportunity for kids to feed the penguins! Yeah! Just like that—grab fish and throw it to the penguins….and then don’t forget to sanitize your hands. Kids loved it.
Our next stop-Oshima island. Oshima is connected with the mainland by a beautiful red bridge. The area is very woody. Definitely not to miss.
As we walked around the island, we saw lots of Buddhist deities carved directly into rock formations, a stone engraved with poems written by Buddhist poets, and lots of statues like the one below.
At his point I have to share this story. Please not Katya’s Japanese pink umbrella in the next picture below. She got it as a gift for the new school year. She loved it. She shook it all over the place while we were exploring the islands and especially while she was looking over the water. I jinxed her. I said she will drop the umbrella into the ocean if she doesn’t stop waving it around.
This is the last picture of the umbrella we have. It fell down into the water from a very high point of Oshima… and was never seen again. Katya was devastated. Hopefully, she’ll remember all the other things we did in Matsushima besides losing her beloved pink umbrella.
We had an hour or so to spare before we had to meet up with our group at the boat pier. So we ran over to the Godaido island. A very special worship hall is located there. It was originally built in 807. The inside of this hall is not generally open to the public, and only once in 33 years it is revealed during a special ceremony. The roof of the hall was very ornate.
What’s interesting about this island is its bridge, Sukashibashi. It was structured deliberately to leave openings between the planks that enable walkers to directly see the surface of the water underneath the bridge as they cross. One of the aims of this structure is to get people centered before reaching the island so that they can worship with concentration at the island’s worship hall.
Finally—the boat ride. The kids were so excited to ride on this tour boat.
It is said that there are about 260 islands seen in Matsuhima Bay, and some islands can only be seen by boat. Our tour escort gave everyone some squid crackers so we could feed the seagulls.
Amazing view!
Our boat took us from Matsushima to the neighboring city of Shiogama where our bus met us. We grabbed a bite to eat—actually, some fried tofu on a stick (kids thought it was fish or something, that’s why they ate TOFU!!!)
I couldn’t ask for more—beautiful trip with such well behaved kids (we are still working on shopping for souvenirs part).
Sayonara from Lyana.
