Matsushima, Matsushima, Aaah Matsushima
Trip Start
May 05, 2004
1
32
46
Trip End
Jun 16, 2004
Matsushima, Japan
Thursday, June 3, 2004
We take this train to a recommended stop where we can get off and take a sightseeing ferry the rest of the way to Matsushima. We see a few signs in Japanese that seem to say the ferry is this way and we look at the local map outside the station. So, we start walking and figure eventually, we'll see water. We walk for a bit and then stop on a street corner to reassess where we think we are. A young guy on a bike rides up to us and says "May I help you?", yes please. We tell him where we'd like to go and he points us in the correct direction. We chat for a little when he asks where we are from and if we speak Japanese. We are again amazed that someone would help us out of the blue. We say goodbye and start walking in the direction he had pointed. In 10+ minutes we come to the ferry landing. Inside we can get two tickets and the boat is already docked and waiting.
We board and buy two Asahi beers from the vending machine. The 50 minute ride in Matsushima Bay is really nice. The name Matsushima means "pine clad islands" and we see many of these very small islands covered in Japanese pine trees. It's great. We have a guide written in English explaining some of the names of the different islands. It's very enjoyable to be on the water on a sunny day. We arrive to Matsushima around 1:30 and go to the tourist info office to stow our bags in coin lockers and get a map of the area. We spend about 2 hours walking around this small town on the water. This was a popular spot for Buddhist priests to meditate and you can see caves with carvings in the stone. It's really interesting. We also walked around a small island, Oshima, which is connected to the main land by a small bridge. It was nice and peaceful.
Around 3:30, we retrieve our bags and head for our hotel which is a riyukan inn. After asking for help a few times, we find it is on the top of a steep windy road. We check in and spend about 20 minutes trying to understand that the attendant would like to know when we would like to have dinner. 6pm. We are shown to our room which has two tatami rooms, a bathroom and a showerroom. You can see the bay from our windows. This hotel also has public baths which we decide to indulge in before dinner. So, we don the yakatas (cotton robe) left in the room for us and head to our separate baths.
You must wash fully before entering the bath. So, you do this at a little stall with a showerhead, mirror and stool. Once you are sure you have completely rinsed all soap off of your body you may enter the bath. The bath is a shallow pool of hot water. It feels great, but we agreed it ended up being too warm. We missed the Russian style where you have a contrast of hot and cold. This is just a hot soak. Nonetheless, we felt refreshed before dinner. Unclear whether dinner will be in our room or the dining room, we wait. At 6:05, we dress and go down to the dining room.
We are greeted and led to a private tatami room where there is already a huge spread waiting for us. Sashimi, grilled fish, ragu pork dish, sushi, steamed crab, soup, rice, and some other things we honestly weren't sure about. It was good and afterwards, we went to our room. It was dark now and we noticed a beautiful yellow-orange moon rising. Mark had bought us to Asahi beers from the vending machine and so we turned all the lights out in our room, turned to chairs to face the windows and watched the moonrise while enjoying our beers.
We read a little before going to sleep, both feeling glad we decided to come to Matsushima.
