Finally at the last day of our trip in Tohoku - Day 5!
The previous day we started in Akita, explored Oga and learned about the namahage tradition, made a stop in Kakunodate to check out the Samurai Residence Street and spent the night in Sendai after a tasty gyutan dinner.
Day 5 overview:
07:54 - 08:33 train Sendai to Matsushima-Kaigan station
09:00 Matsushima Bay boat cruise
10:20 - 10:58 train Matsushima-Kaigan to Sendai station
12:01 - 12:22 Sendai to Fukushima station via Shinkansen
12:35 - 13:07 Fukushima to Yonezawa station via Shinkansen
Lunch in Yonezawa - Yonezawa beef
14:38 - 16:48 Yonezawa to Tokyo station via Shinkansen
18:15 return home (Kanagawa) for dinner locally
This was our first time staying in a Washington group hotel, and we were very pleased with the facilities! The bathrooms were quite large and the rooms were nicely upkept. We enjoyed breakfast as part of our stay before checking out at around 07:30 in the morning.
With all of our bags, headed back to Sendai station.
We found the coin lockers (there's quite a few, but it seems like they're reasonably popular), dropped off our bags and then headed for the local train. Now that we're back in a city, there's lots more people and the platforms and trains run closer to what we're familiar with from being in the Kanto area.
The train was crowded when we boarded but pretty much empty by the time we got to one of the last stops - Matsushima Kaigan station.
We took note of when the train would be going back to Sendai station and then starting walking.
I got a little confused about the best place to buy the cruise tickets, but you do have a few options. If you go to the pier where all the ships are, there should be a few vendors there all trying to get you to buy from them. They're all typically around the same (if not actually the same) price and do similar routes, but make sure you pick one that's right for you.
Once on the ship, we could choose to upgrade to the upper deck for an additional cost, but there were still plenty of seats available on the lower level, so we stayed with general admission.
The cruise begins! You can freely move about the ship as it goes, including to the open air areas (but you will get the diesel smell from the ship). We also had an English map that showed the route of the cruise and the names of the different islands. The announcements on the ship as we passed certain landmarks were made in both English and Japanese as well.
This cruise is much better enjoyed in person than in photos, but here are some small highlights.
Our round trip journey took the as-advertised 50 minutes. As we exited the boat, the number of guests waiting to board (10:00 cruise) seemed MUCH larger than the number we had on our 09:00 cruise, so we were glad to have made the effort to go early.
We had a pleasant walk through the park on our way back to the station.
Unfortunately, that's all we really had time for based on the train schedule! There's supposedly great seafood in Matsushima Kaigan as well, but we didn't get a chance to stay.
Back at Sendai station, we did have a little bit of time before the shinkansen, so we took the opportunity to do a little bit of omiyage shopping as we were soon heading out of Tohoku! We had been minimally making purchases to this point since it would have been a pain to lug anything additional around, but this was pretty much our last chance where we wouldn't be under a time crunch.
And then on a Hayabusa train heading south.
We make a brief stop at Fukushima but stay within the shinkansen tracks area because we're only making a quick transfer.
Next train is a Tsubasa to take us to Yonezawa!
Last stop of our trip! We exit the tracks and put our large bags into one of the coin lockers (100yen coins only). There's a NewsDays right next to it if you need to get change.
It's a short walk to Bekoya for lunch. We came to this area for just one reason - Let's eat some Yonezawa Beef! There's 3 preparation options and you need to choose before you're seated - shabushabu style, yakiniku style or sukiyaki. We chose to go with yakiniku!
We were seated in an nice booth with 2 grills, lots of room for 6 people. We decided to order set meals from the lunch menu and then supplement with some ala carte items as well.
Service was pretty fast and the staff were pretty patient with us and the language barrier. The grill was a nice temperature and the meats cooked pretty evenly and quickly too.
We had arrived with only a little before last order, so we didn't stay long, but everyone enjoyed it! Definitely the highest quality (and most expensive lol) meal of the trip. Saved the best for last :)
We finished lunch pretty quickly, and I didn't have anything else planned in the area, so we headed back to the station and changed our reserved tickets to be for the next shinkansen (about an hour earlier). And we still had a bit of time to do some omiyage shopping at the station without rushing.
Last shinkansen in Tohoku! Headed alll the way back to Tokyo station now.
We arrived back in Tokyo just before 17:00, right into the hustle and bustle of people moving around after work on a Tuesday. My husband and I still had a bit of ways to go to get back to our house, so we quickly made a transfer and got on our way.
The rest of my family went to go check back into the hotel they were originally staying at prior to our Tohoku trip (on Day 0). They ended up dropping off their bags and decided to come over to our area for dinner! My parents have stayed with us before, but this was my brother and SIL's first time seeing the house and our neighborhood.
We had a nice dinner, a little bit of dessert and then sent them home on the train - a pleasant and low key way to end our travel together!
Recommendations:
‣ Matsushima Bay cruise - this is one of the Nihon Sankei (Japan's three most scenic spots), so a must do if you're in Sendai besides eating gyudon.
‣ eating Yonezawa beef (at Bekoya) - it was worth it to make the shinkansen transfer and stop here just for lunch
What we would change: We only really did 2 activities this day, and I would do both again in a heart beat. However, if you're not going to work early the next morning (so getting back to Tokyo before dinner isn't a priority for you), I would recommend staying a little longer in Matsushima Kaigan/Sendai to explore that area a little more. Or, if planning to go to Yonezawa from Sendai, I would consider actually taking some time to explore in Fukushima since you get off the train and make the transfer there anyway before continuing to Yonezawa for dinner instead of lunch.
I'm grateful to have had the opportunity to explore this region that I had barely only stepped foot in during my prior trips. Not everything went perfectly, but each area was so unique and it was so easy to get around with the JR East Rail Pass! We caught so many different shinkansen trains, changed several of our reserved seat tickets day of, and didn't have to think so hard about the transportation costs. I'm glad we were able to take advantage of the pass while living here!
If you've been reading through each day of the trip, thank you for making the journey with us! All locations, landmarks, activities are pinned
in my Google Maps link here for ease of use :)
Our standout favorites from the trip as a whole:
Tohoku 5-day JR Rail Pass trip posts
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