We're in Matsushima
It's known as being one of the 3 most scenic places in Japan
There's a bay with over 260 tiny islands
In the bay
They've all got fir trees on
It's very picturesque
I've been looking forward to editing this video
It was one of my favorite places from the trip
We're going to have a look around Matsushima
& take a boat trip around the bay
But the best part's actually coming up in next week's video
So subscribe if you want to catch it
There's new Japan videos every Thursday
Matsushima's about half an hour on the train from Sendai
Which is only about an hour & 45 minutes from Tokyo
On the bullet train
It's really quite accessible
And easy to get to
I'd really recommend it
If you're planning a trip
It was famous because a Japanese poet called Basho wrote a poem about it
That's about all I know about Japanese poetry!
I only know about this
Because it was in my Japanese audio course
For some reason
Basho is a Japanese poet & master of haiku
He's said to have written a haiku that goes something like:
Matsushima, Aah Matsushima, Matsushima
Because he was so lost for words
At how beautiful it is
It's kind of a silly haiku
There's some debate about whether he actually wrote it at all
I think it was in the 1600s or the olden times
It was designated one of these three most scenic places
More recently they did a new 3 most scenic places
And it wasn't included in that one
They switched them all up
the other two of the three originals were
Itsukushima Shrine in Miyajima, which we went to
There's a video about it on my channel
And Amanohashidate
Which is a sand bar
There's a sort of bridge of sand
With the ocean on either side
The first place I mentioned
Itsukushima shrine is in Miyajima which is near Hiroshima
It really is beautiful
I absolutely loved it there
There's a torii gate in the water
When the tide's out you can walk right up to it
And there's wild deer
The 2nd of Japan's scenic views
Amanohashidate
is in Kyoto prefecture
The traditional way of viewing the sandbar
Is to stand on a bench, bend over
And look at it from between your legs!
When you're upside down
It's said to look like a dragon going up to the sky
I'm going to try this Mont Blanc drink
From the vending machine
It's a hot one
This chestnut mont blanc drink
Is really sweet
It's warm & tastes like caramelly...
Like hot chocolate but caramel-y
With nut flavour instead
Very sweet!
All the hot drinks from the vending machine
Seem to be really sweet
That red bridge over there
Is the bridge to Fukuura Island
That you can walk across
This here is Godaido temple
We were saying how strange it is
There's all these little islands
You don't see this sort of formation
In many places
We were wondering
If they're formed by erosion
Or if they pushed up from the sea
It's just really unusual
First we're going to see the islands from the water
On a boat trip around the bay
We're going on a boat cruise around the bay
Where you can see nice views of all the islands
Or 260 islands
I don't know if we go see all of them
Because we've got lots of Yen left
We've gone for First Class, upstairs
Here's where we're going
A round trip around the bay
We're going to see all these islands
They also had one-way trips
Going from Matsushima to Shiogama
Which is the next major station along
We#re doing the Matsushima to Matsushima round trip
It was 1,500 yen each for a ticket
It's 50 minutes long
It was an extra 600 yen to go upstairs to first class
There was an announcement saying
There've been cases where
Seagulls have taken people's mobile phones
To call all their bird friends?!
As we went along
There was a commentary in Japanese and English
Explaining the names of the main islands
Aand what they're supposed to look like
We went out on deck
For a better view
It was pretty breezy out there
This is February
It's only about 4 degrees centigrade
Although it feels warmer to us
Because we've just come from Hokkaido
Where it was about minus 10 degrees C
And absolutely freezing
Some people live on these islands
Most of these are too small to have anything on
And we saw one a minute ago
That had just one tree on it
I don't know if you can see
There's a lot of fishing nets in the water here
Matsushima's known for oysters
So I don't know if it's that or some other seafood
Some of the islands are really tiny
I think like the inspiration for Pandora
In Avatar
The floating islands
There's some caves in this one
Can you imagine
Sailing into them in a little boat
There's a big mountain over there in the distance
I find it really strange
How you can often see mountains in the background in Japan
It's so different from at home
The large island is Sabusawajima
*Japanese*
There's just one tree on top of this one
The island with the houses that you can see
Is Nonoshima
There's an elementary and junior high school on the island
Students commute to school by boat
The large bamboo poles assembled into a scaffold shape
Are farms for Matsushima's famous oysters
To set the mood on the way back
They played a retro Japanese song about Matsushima Bay
There's a lot of the islands you can see from the boat
That you can't see from the land
The whole thing covers a much larger area than I expected
They said it's about 12 or 14 km across
It's hard to get a good picture of the whole thing in one go
They said there are 4 vantage points
Where you can see a view of all 260 islands
There's the gorgeous view
The beautiful view, the dynamic view and the mysterious view
Depending where you're looking at it from
I didn't go to any of these viewpoints
But I think they'd give you a better overview of the whole bay
Going between the islands on a boat
You get some beautiful views
But you don't really feel like you've seen the whole thing
Because it's cold and windy
We've come inside for ice cream
I've got Zunda
Which is a local thing around Sendai
It's edamame ice cream
I was very tempted by the black sesame
Because that's my favorite
But I thought I'd try the local specialty
It tastes a bit nutty actually
It's kind of like vanilla
But with the aftertaste of edamame
And the greenness of edamame!
This may look like a mini Japanese castle
And it's called Matsushima Castle
But it's actually an observation deck
This building behind me is Godaido
I think it's a temple
Inside, it's got some statues that only come out every 33 years
I think that's the thing they have at some temples & shrines in Japan
They have special things that they only bring out very very rarely
So it's highly unlikely they'll be out at the moment
But we could be lucky - who knows?!
I heard about this idea
In the book Lost Japan by Alex Kerr
It's a true story
The author was staying at a temple
When he arrived the monk said
"Ooh you must come & see our Buddha statue"
So we went to his room first to freshen up
When he came back later that evening
The monk said "How lucky you are to be here today
To see the Buddha statue"
He said well actually I was planning on seeing it in the morning
I turns out, it's only brought out for one day
Every 500 years and he'd missed it
So if you get the chance to see something like that in Japan
Don't pass it up good
Godaido is a temple, originally built in the year 807
The current building's from the 1600s
There's 3 red bridges going over to Godaido
Looks like the river's dried up there
This bridge has gaps so you can see the water below
Originally it was to increase your focus and concentration
As you went into the temple
It's also called a matchmaking bridge
Because people would hold hands as they went across
You couldn't fall in
Or could you??
There's a lovely view across here
Across to the long red bridge
That goes across to Fukuurajima
The temple building was red
But the paint's all worn away now
I think it looks good in this natural colour
No statues today
It's not a big surprise
Today isn't once every 33 years
They'll next be displayed in the year 2039
So if this video & YouTube
Are still around then
Make sure you plan a visit
While we were there
The sun came out
And the views start to look a lot more beautiful
Just look at the sparkling water
As you might know, Japan's prone to natural disasters
here a sign to the nearest tsunami evacuation area
1 km away
In the great tsunami an earthquake in 2011
Matsushima did suffer some damage
But ecause of all the islands in the bay
It sort of protected it and broke the water as it came in
I saw some pictures of the next town along
The next major station at Shiogama
And that did look quite bad there
If you're coming into Japan
There's always a possibility there could be an earthquake or a tsunami even
But it's not something you need to worry about overly
Because they don't happen that often
People are prepared for it here
Everyone around you will know what to do
I've been here when there's been very minor earthquakes
And no one seemed to hardly bat an eyelid
But they don't happen all the time either
Sso you don't need to overly worry about it
I hope you enjoyed this look around Matsushima
The boat trip, Godaido Temple & edamame ice-cream
As I said, the best is yet to come
Next time we'll be exploring Fukuurajima Island
Which was my favorite part
I really started to see
Why this is one of Japan's top 3 scenic views
Or used to be
I'll see you next week on Thursday