Garden - Sendai day 2 (part 2)

After we finished with the boat tour (see part 1), we walked around and looked at some of the other sights of the Matsushima area. We visited a temple called Entsuin. One unique feature of the grounds is that it sits in a valley with steep rock cliffs around it, with grave sites carved into the rock.

The Stargate Buddha?

There was a beautiful rock garden on the grounds, too.

The gardens were very calm and peaceful.

Yumiko said this statue represented her when the kids were little.

This tree is 700 years old.

Next we went to visit 福浦島 (Fukuura Island), one of the larger of the 260 islands in the bay. It's about a half mile long, and is reached by an 800 foot long bridge.

A few of the mainland from the island. The tall skinny building has a lookout site on the top floor. Unfortunately, we didn't have time to visit. It's probably got a great view of the bay.

Walking paths run all over the island.

Daniel tries the road less travelled.

It was really pretty.

We found a small temple on the island.

The island offered some great views of the bay, too.

We found a place where you could get down on the beach.

Time to head back.

We went back to Sendai and met up with Bro. and Sis. Abe, who Lisa knew when she was in 石巻 (Ishinomaki). We had dinner together -- the local delicacies, oysters and cow tongue.

Finally if all of that wasn't enough for one day, after dinner we walked over to where we could catch the end of a fireworks display to end our day with a bang.

Rock Islands - Sendai day 2 (part 1)

Friday morning we got up, walked to the train station, and headed for 松島海岸  (Matsushima-kaigan), which is about 45 minutes north of Sendai, right along the coast. The train line we rode on, the 仙石線 (Senseki Line), was badly damaged in the tsunami in 2011, and just finally went back into service last year.

Matsushima Bay is known as one of the three most scenic spots in Japan. It's a large bay, dotted with 260 islands. The largest is over a mile across; the smallest, just a few feet. The name "Matsushima" means "pine tree island," and as you might guess, most of the islands were covered with pine trees.

Most of the islands were out in the bay; several were close enough to the shore to be connected by bridges, including these, which are so close you could probably jump across the gap.

We had lunch at a little mom-and-pop shop run by a nice lady and a kind of crotchety old guy, then headed out on a boat tour of the islands. The 50-minute tour took a big loop around the bay, past islands of every description.

The boat was two stories, with large seating areas with big glass windows. We also could go out onto a small open deck area at the stern.

We passed several areas with nets, that I think are used for farming squid, a local delicacy.

These "fenced" areas are for raising oysters, another local delicacy.

Islands of every shape and size!