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Listed among the three most scenic views in Japan in 1956, Matsushima is a bay dotted with several hundred miniscule limestone islands. These islands are generously coated with a helping of pine trees, hence the name. Matsushima makes for a very interesting day trip from nearby Sendai, as the landscape is truly unique and well-worth a visit, particularly for shutterbugs.

Matsushima is about an hour train ride from downtown Sendai. You can expect to spend a full day riding the ferry and exploring the many small islands and temples that dot its shores. There are two ferry tours of the bay available. One leaves from Matsushima proper and does a loop tour. For a less crowded and slightly longer boat ride, get off the train at Shiogama and follow the signs to the “Marine Gate” to take a ferry across the bay. We chose this option. No need to take the ferry back as you can simply pick up the train a couple stops down the line in the center of the village in order to return to Sendai.

Be sure to visit the local Zen Buddhist temple, Zuiganji. The caves and carvings on the walk to the temple complex are interesting in themselves. While on the islands large enough for footbridges and trails, keep your eyes peeled for charming weather worn temple structures. And cleverly placed jizo (small Buddhist statues) are always ready to pose for a photograph.

Like most areas in Tohoku, you can’t expect a lot of help in English as it is somewhat off the beaten path for foreign tourists. We visited during high summer season (Sendai’s tanbata festival) and were almost the only foreigners in town. The Marine Gate ferry terminal did have a poorly photocopied English guide to the ferry route. The tsunami evacuation signs were also conveniently bilingual. Fortunately, we were blessed with ideal summer weather and calm waves during our visit.

While in Matsushima, you can try local kaki (oysters) for lunch, frequently available as part of a lunch set at the local restaurants that line the shoreline shopping strip. Raw kaki are also available for braver stomachs.

If you are into souvenirs, this is a good place to pick up a kokeshi or two. Kokeshi are wooden dolls turned on a lathe and hand-painted. Some believe the dolls were carved as mementos for mothers grieving over the untimely loss of an infant (a very wooden and un-cuddle-ly surrogate if you ask me!). However, there is little proof of this. A more pragmatic history of the toy is that the local farming population needed a source of income and work activity during the long harsh Tohoku mountain winters, and started carving these quaint little dolls out of the local wood to sell to tourists who visited the nearby onsen.

Kokeshi are available all over Japan but are particularly associated with the Tohoku region. Cheap tourist ones are a couple hundred yen. A nice old or artistic contemporary example can be had for under 1man (10,000 yen). Most of the shops in Matsushima are full of the things. I think the nice ones have a charming folk art quality about them and enjoy grouping them in twos and threes in my apartment. But then, I like dolls of all sorts.

For an overall impression of Matsushima, my brother thought it was a tad more commercially overgrown and tacky than Miyajima and probably was more scenic in ’56 than it is now. We didn’t make it to Amanohashidate while I lived in Japan, the third “most scenic” spot in Japan, so we can’t make a comparison there. Maybe that’s the next trip?

Author’s Note: This piece was written in 2009, shortly after our trip and about a year and a half before the Great Tohoku earthquake and tsunami of March 2011. I am glad to report that Matsushima being a sheltered bay escaped a lot of destruction. Zuiganji temple was even used as a post-disaster shelter. For updated travel information visit japan-guide.com or other travel websites.