One of the 3 most beautiful places in Japan is Matsushima. In Matsushima Bay, is a collection of hundreds of islands which have been sculpted into strange shapes by the wind and the waves. We took a day trip up to Matsushima. We rode the Shinkansen from Utsunomiya and back. While waiting for our train in Utsunomiya, we had what we have come to call a "Blow by". This is when a Shinkansen is not stopping at a particular station, but "blowing by". I managed to catch this one:Pretty cool when you consider that the train has slowed down to about 120-30 kph through the station. Normal speed for this shinkansen is about 250 kph.
We rode the shinkansen and took in the wonderful Japanese countryside:
That mountain that you see is Nasu Dake, which you might remember that we climbed, or tried to climb when Kim was in the US.After exiting the shinkansen at Sendai, it was still another 30 minutes by local train to Matsushima. The first thing that we did once we arrived there is we took an hour boat ride out into the bay and the Pacific Ocean to see the various islands. There was a recording in both Japanese and English which was helpful. There were all kinds of cool islands:
Matsushima means "Pine Island" which you can see why, since many of the islands were covered with pine trees:
This was the coolest one, although it had no pine trees on it:
Also, you can see some of the seagulls that followed every boat, looking for handouts:
We didn't ride in this boat, but it was cool:
It was warm on the boat, and many people fell asleep:
After the boat ride we went to Oshima, which is an island that has a bridge connecting it to the mainland. On this island were many different statues and carvings into the rock faces:
This area was quite tranquil with the statue and the colorful Japanese Maple:
There were also some nice views of the bay from here:
Our next island visit was this island:
To get out there you had to cross a series of 3 bridges. The interesting thing about these bridges however, is that they were built with a kind of beam flooring that had quite large holes through them down to the water. I'm not sure if Daniel could have fit through them, but I didn't want to find out!Out on the island was this shrine:
They only open the doors to the shrine once every 33 years, so since the last time was in 2006, I'll be 79 when it happens again. Probably not going to be back to see it. The shrine was decorated with the Chinese Zodiac characters:
Our last Island hopping was across this long bridge, 250 meters in length. The large island attached to is a National Park and Conservatory. There were more colorful trees:
and more nice views:
And another shrine:
Note the cool things on the top:We walked all around this island until almost dark, the kids even found a small patch of snow and tried to have a snowball fight:
There were a couple of cool sunset viewing spots as well:
Actually, this last one is the moon!Finally, after dark, the Zojoji Zen Temple was lit up at night. This was a special event during the fall color time, and the next evening was the final night of the event. The first part of the entrance way had more carvings and caverns in the side of a cliff face. There were lots of places lit up to show the colorful trees:
It was spooky:
The entire area was covered in the huge tall Japanese Cedars, which were impossible to photograph at night, but were really cool. 
Then, we came to the temple. with more lights:
More atmosphere:
Can you see the moon shining though the Bamboo up above? 
It was really cool. However, the most amazing thing was the last thing. It was a pond. The trees on the other side were all lit up, and reflected like a mirror in the calm waters of the pool. I tried several different camera settings, but couldn't get a good picture. It was so cool, that there were monks making you leave after a minute or two, because everyone was so mesmerized by it:
After that, we left the temple, along this lit path:
and here was the entrance gate all lit up:
Lastly, the boys and I went back over to one of the islands which was all lit up in green:
What a cool place!!!A funny thing happened on the train ride back to Sendai. At the station platform, Daniel started playing peek-a-boo with this young 20-something cute Japanese woman. She talked with him a little, told him her name was Ayumi, and she was from Tokyo. She sat about 2 rows back from us on the train. After about 15 minutes, Daniel became bored with whatever he was doing, and started playing flirty-flirty eyes with her again. She kept patting the seat next to her, indicating he could sit there. Finally, he looks up at me and says "I want to give her a kiss!"
He went over and sat next to her, there was no kissing, but he and Kim talked with her for most of the rest of the ride back to Sendai. It made the manly daddy inside me happy that Daniel is interesting in kissing girls. I wonder if that attitude will change in about 10 years or so...........
11/24/07
No comments:
Post a Comment