Matsushima: 1 of 3 Most Scenic Views of Japan

Last Sunday I went to Matsushima and as the title says it is considered to be one of the 3 most scenic views of Japan (the other two being Miyajima and Amanohashidate which I plan on going to the 1st week of April) and it is only about 20 minutes away from where I live! Kind of surprised that it took me this long to get there but I guess it is like my dad who lived in New York City for a large part of his life and has never been to the Statue of Liberty...When you are this close you feel like you can always go so there is no rush. Anyway I made it there and it was pretty amazing. Basically Matsushima is a bunch of small islands of rock with pine trees on them. There are 275 islands total and the waves/ocean has shaped them in interesting ways over the years. I thought this place was pretty amazing, but to be honest, I can see it changing a lot depending on the weather and the time of day you go. On a cloudy day or during the middle day it is not nearly as scenic as it is on a nice day right after sunrise or right before sunset (when I went). Check out some photos of Matsushima below and here for the gallery:


My favorite part about Matsushima was actually the boat ride that I took around the bay; not because of the great views but because of the seagulls that followed us around for food!



Seriously these seagulls were pretty amazing. Not bc if you held up food they would come take it right out of your hand.....


......but more impressive is that if you threw them food pretty much 9 times out of 10 they would catch it in flight........


...... but also (sorry for the run-on sentence here) the boat would make make announcements about when it is OK to feed the seagulls and the within (mili)seconds the seagulls would come back or go away (if we were told not to feed them). Anyway, I have a new appreciation for seagulls.

You looking at me!?!?!