Tohoku Road Trip: Night 1- Matsushima

As one last hurrah before school starts in September, my friend and I decided to take a road trip around the Tohoku region of Japan. Our first stop was Matsushima.

According to Wikipedia, about 260 of Matsushima’s islands are covered in pine trees, or matsu in Japanese, hence the name Matsushima. 

My friend and I left Chiba at around 2:30 pm on Thursday and arrived at the Ikeuo no Yado Inn (Fishery Section) a little after 8:00 pm.  Once we had settled in to our room, we decided to go and walk around the area.  Our hotel was right on Matsushima Bay, and was very close to the Fukuura Bridge, which looked especially stunning at night.  We noticed that the gate to the bridge was open so we decided to walk along it for awhile.  Afterwards we walked past Godaido Temple and Kanrantei, as well as by the ferry docks. 

 

Night view from Fukuura Bridge, Matsushima

Since it was already 9:00 pm by this time, we decided to go back to our room and take a bath at hotel.  We were lucky that no one was there with us at the time that we went hahaha.  This was one of the nicest hotel baths that I had seen in Japan (as it turns out, it would be the nicest hotel bath on our trip), so if you stay at this hotel, I suggest checking it out!   

Our room in Matsushima

Bath at Ikeuo no Yado

Open window bath at Ikeuo no Yado