Too foggy to see Matsushima
Trip Start
Aug 09, 2006
1
5
20
Trip End
Sep 31, 2006
Matsushima, Japan
Friday, August 18, 2006
Walked to breakfast downtown Sendai. Organic Café: fresh pastries and coffee drinks. Train Station for some shopping. Lots of souvenir shops. Back to the car and thru city to Matsushima. There to visit shrines. Godaido Shrine only open to the public once very 33 years and it happened to be this weekend! Lots of Japanese tourists. Date (pernounced Dahtae) family estate museum and traditional Japanese gardens. Day was very foggy and lighting was weird but interesting. Lots of gold leaf paintings. Then to the festival area by the water for food and traditional entertainment (Taiko drumming). Souvenir bag for Godaido Shrine. Shrine was on a small island in the bay that is only accessable my small bridge. Thousands of people visit it over the weekend. Up to the lookout point to see Matsushima island but it was too foggy. FYI: Matsushima is one of the three most beautiful spots in Japan. Bummer we missed it. Godaido Shrine made up for it. Now back inland to try and hit up Yamadera since it was closed yesterday. Get there and hike up path to shrines. Beautiful misty mountain views. Very few people there because it was late in the day. It was a little mountainside religious community complete with post office and utilities. Stopped at the booze store for Sado weekend partying. Sushi (with coveyerbelt style) and Joe's first sushi experience. Late night driving back to Niigata, ~4 hours drive thru the mountains at night. Did laundry at 1am and then passed out cold!
