The LDS Air Force Wife: 15th Anniversary Celebration at Matsushima Bay, Japan

Josh and I had our 15th wedding Anniversary this month and since it was a big number and we live in an amazing place, we took a little overnighter. We had the help of great neighbors to watch our kids for the night so we will be returning the favor. We drove down to Matsushima Bay. It is by Sendai so a four hour drive from Misawa. It was the first time we had taken a toll road in Japan and we had no idea how expensive it would be. We realized that we did not have enough yen to make it back to Misawa. We are still figuring out how much yen to take with us on outings. When we arrived at our hotel (beautiful and overlooking the bay) we tried to explain that we needed more yen. They spoke little English so we did the best we could with google translate. One of the hotel employees drove us to a bank where we discovered that we would not be able to withdrawal yen with our American cards. I knew this but did not know how to explain what we needed. She then took us to a 7/11 where there was an ATM that worked with American cards. We were extremely grateful, humbled by the language barrier, and impressed by the service that we received for the hotel as we searched for a way to get yen.

The Matsushima Century Hotel was beautiful. They provided us with robes and we had beds and cushions in case we wanted to sleep Japanese style. We had slippers at the entry for the room, slippers for the bathroom, and slippers for the veranda. Patrons would walk around the hotel in their robes and slippers. It was a great mix of class and comfort. We loved the view of the bay from our room and the walking distance to the sights. We were served a seven course dinner with buffet and a buffet breakfast. We felt very pampered.

Beautiful view outside our veranda

There was a lot to explore in the bay. We went across the Fukuurabashi bridge to Fukuurajima island. It felt tropical and sometimes the trees were so heavy that it was dark under the canopy.

We took a ferry boat in the bay which took us around to the interesting islands (jima). We learned that Matsushima bay is one of the three most photographed areas of Japan.

The city had a lot of sights to see in walking distance. We went to the Matsushima Retro Gallery. Most of the old toys meant nothing to us but we were interested in the pictures of the earthquake and tsunami that devastated Matsushima in 2011. We went to the Godaido temple, and the caves leading to the Zuiganji Temple. We enjoyed seeing a mix of the old and the new in this interesting town.