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Yesterday I finally made it to Matsushima, after putting off the trip for a few days due to rain. Matsushima Bay is about 2 hours north of Fukushima by train on the Pacific coast. Matsushima is considered on of the "Three Great Sights" of Japan, along with Kyoto and Miyajima. There is a famous poem by the poet Basho that goes:

"Matsushima, ah, Matsushima, Matsushima, Matsushima!"

I didn't say it was a good poem...

As a top tourist attraction, it was crowded with Japanese tourists, and a handful of foreigners. I finally found my first souvenir shops there (since there are no tourists in Fukushima, there is no need for souvenirs) selling everything from dried fish to hand-carved wooden dolls and iron tea pots. The word "matsushima" means "pine island" since the bay is filled with rocky islands covered in pine trees. There are over 200 islands in the bay ranging in size from ones that are large enough to have parks and buildings and nature trails on them, to islands with only enough room for a single pine tree.

One of the main tourist attractions in Matsushima is the Godaido temple which was first built on one of the smaller islands in the 9th century, and was later re-constructed in 1600 by Date Masamune, a warlord from the Miyagi/Fukushima area who built a castle in Sendai. The temple itself is only opened every 33 years, the next of which is in mid-August. The temple itself is unimpressive, but it does have a nice view of the surrounding bay.

There were lots of tour groups and boat tours of the bay, including one carved wooden boat shaped like a dragon. We didn't have neough time to take a boat cruise, or enough Japanese skills ot actuall enquire as to where the boat went. It was a pretty busy town, even though the sky was overcast and it was somewhat cool out. We took a walk along the bay and across one of the bridges to a larger island where we were able to have a picnic lunch. The island had several trails and pathways. Since the tide was out, we were also able to walk along the beach surrounding the islands. There were oysters everywhere and the Japanese locals showed up to dig oysters out of the sand and throw them in buckets.

The one thing that surprises me about Japan is that there is a lot of gargabe on the beach and in the water. For a country that is unbelieveably clean, it's odd to see empty bottles and plastic wrappers in the water along the shore. There are no public garbage cans- the Japanese carry their garbage with them until they get home. Even without the garbage cans, there is rarely any garbage on the side of streets. Walking home the other night with Eve and Rusty who is visiting us, we pointed out an empty beer can on the street since it is such an odd sight (a beer can isn't odd since you can drink in public and vending machines sell beer).

There is also a large temple in Matsushima. On the walk to the temple we passed caves that had been carved out of the side of the rocks. The caves were used as meditation spaces and there are several tombstone-like carvings of Buddhas as well as other ornate shapes carved into the rock wall. Of course, all the signs and tours are in Japanese so we end up pointing at a lot of things and trying to figure out what they are for ourselves. Luckily, my Japan guide book has some Matsushima facts so we were able to get a general idea of what we were looking at. It was a good way to spend an afternoon.

So far the weather has been warm but rainy off and on- the forecast calls for rain everyday, although it usually only ends up raining half of the time. There isn't much to do in Fukushima on a good day, so rainy days are harder to figure out. We basically end up at karaoke a few times a week and eat out for dinner. Restaurants are cheap here and there's always something different on the menu. Last time we were given a speacial "dessert"- frozen apple cider vinegar. At first, we thought we had all misunderstood the waitress' broken English. Nope. She had given us frozen apple cider vinegar to eat as dessert. Trying not to be rude, we gulped it down and went in search of something else to get rid of the vinegar taste. I have also discovered my new favourite game: the aracde drum game. You have to follow the "beats" on the screen to play the drums. It's constantly yelling at you in Japanese as you play the song and a game lasts 3 rounds and about 5 minutes. It's lots of fun to play and I'm becoming a pro at it.

For something different tonight, it's Round 1- a giant sports/entertanment complex in town that has bowling, fishing, karaoke, arcade games, basketball, roller skating, archery and golf all inside a giant stadium. And if the weather holds up for Saturday, it's a trip to Aizu-Wakamatsu where there is large castle and lots of sightseeing. Other than that, I'm off to Tokyo for a week on Sunday with trips to Nikko (a World Heritage site) and Mt. Fuji, so I'll have plenty to share when I'm back next week.

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