Matsushima Bay Travel Video Guide

Matsushima Bay Travel Itinerary

• Maps and flag of Japan
• Matsushima Bay travel photos
• Matsushima Bay travel forum
• Flights to Matsushima Bay
• Hotels in Matsushima Bay
• Hostels in Matsushima Bay
• Buy the guide book!

The jumble of wooded islands dotting Matsushima Bay , a short train ride northeast of Sendai, is officially designated one of Japan's top three scenic areas, along with Miyajima and Amanohashidate . Roughly 12km by 14km, the bay contains over 260 islands of every conceivable shape and size. The smaller islets are cut through with tunnels and sculpted by wind and waves into fanciful likenesses of tortoises, whales, or even human profiles with a scraggy fringe of contorted pine trees - or so the guides would have you believe. In between, the shallower parts of the bay have been used for farming oysters for around three hundred years.

Basho, travelling through in 1689, commented that "much praise had already been lavished upon the wonders of the islands of Matsushima", and many visitors today find the bay slightly disappointing. Nevertheless,

a boat trip among the white, ribbed islands makes an enjoyable outing, though it's best to avoid weekends and holidays. Matsushima town itself has a couple of less-frequented picturesque spots, and a venerable temple, Zuigan-ji , with an impressive collection of art treasures. Most people visit Matsushima on a day-trip from Sendai, but there are some reasonable accommodation options in the area if you're heading on up the coast to Kinkazan .

Your Tips For Matsushima Bay

• Tokyo Japan Travel Videos
  Japan Travel Itinerary
  On the edge of the Orient, TOKYO - the last great conurbation before the yawning chasm of the Pacific Ocean - is one of the world's most perplexing cities. - Japan
  

• Northern Honshu Japan Travel Videos
  Japan Travel Itinerary
  When the famous poet Matsuo Basho set out on his travels along the "narrow road to the deep north" in 1689, he commented, somewhat despondently, "I might as well be going to the ends of the earth. - Japan
  

• Okinawa Japan Travel Videos
  Japan Travel Itinerary
  The prefecture of Okinawa comprises more than one hundred islands, stretching over 700km of ocean from Kyushu southwest to Yonaguni-jima, almost within sight of Taiwan. - Japan
  

• Hokkaido Japan Travel Videos
  Japan Travel Itinerary
  Many Japanese see HOKKAIDO as an idyllic, unspoiled frontier - the perfect place to escape from industrialized Japan and get back in touch with nature. - Japan
  

• Around Tokyo Japan Travel Videos
  Japan Travel Itinerary
  Tokyo is hemmed into its coastal location on the Kanto plain by a ring of mountains and volcanoes, featuring temples, parks and a couple of bustling towns and cities. - Japan
  

• Central Honshu Japan Travel Videos
  Japan Travel Itinerary
  Located roughly midway along the Japanese archipelago, the seven prefectures of CENTRAL HONSHU , known as Chubu , offer a wide choice of terrain and travel possibilities. - Japan
  

• Kansai Japan Travel Videos
  Japan Travel Itinerary
  In a country so devoid of flat land, the great rice-growing plains of KANSAI , the district around Osaka and Kyoto, are imbued with an almost mystical significance. - Japan
  

• Kyushu Japan Travel Videos
  Japan Travel Itinerary
  Lying off the south end of Honshu, Japan's third largest island, KYUSHU , is surrounded by a spray of smaller islands which trail off in a long arc across the East China Sea. - Japan
  

• Shikoku Japan Travel Videos
  Japan Travel Itinerary
  It has beautiful scenery, a laid-back atmosphere, friendly people and several notable sights, yet SHIKOKU , Japan's fourth main island, is usually at the bottom of most visitors' itineraries - if it appears at all. - Japan
  

• Western Honshu Japan Travel Videos
  Japan Travel Itinerary
  Also known as Chugoku , meaning "middle country", Western Honshu used to be at the centre of the Japanese nation, lying between the country's earliest settlements in Kyushu and the imperial city of Kyoto. - Japan