Scenic views from a boat sailing across Matsushima Bay (Photo-essay)

While the chance to have a kaisendon feast at the Shiogama Wholesale Fish Market may be a great reason to spend time in Shiogama, my main reason for going to that city actually was to go on a boat ride from there to the nearby town of Matsushima.  To be sure, one can take a train from Shiogama to Matsushima -- and, for that matter, a train from my Tohoku base of Sendai to Matushima.  But I figured that the boat ride across Matsushima Bay would be considerably more scenic as well as pleasant (and can confirm that since I did end up taking the train back to Sendai from Matsushima later the same day!).     

With more than 260 islands, most of them pine tree-laden (Matsushima means "pine tree island(s) in Japanese) and uninhabited, there's plenty to see on the boat trip across what's long been considered one of the top three scenic places in Japan (along with Miyajima -- which I've been lucky to already been to -- and Kyoto Prefecture's Amanohashidate).  I also like the boat travels at what seems like an optimal speed for enjoying the experience: not too quickly so you feel like getting to the destination matters more than the journey itself; yet not so slowly that things feel like they're dragging on and you pine (hehe) to get on shore long before the boat finally arrives in Matsushima town... ;b

 Three different forms of transportation in a single photo

taken while waiting for the boat to get going from Shiogama

A seagull flies past a boat berthed in Shiogama port 

as well as the boat I was on ;b

 

Definitely the most alien-looking island/islet 

I saw that day (maybe ever)!

 

Sunlight sparkling on the water adds to the beauty of the bay

 

Oyster farmer tending to his oyster beds in Matsushima Bay

 

Two of the pine clad islands that the bay's famed for

 

This islet got met thinking of a wave but friends 

have told me it brings to mind a whale

 

Puppet Ponyo pointing to an island that took her fancy :)