Hello, r/JapanTravel follower.
Me and a friend will be looking to hike a small section of the Michinoku Coastal Trail 17/18/19 of October. Specifically the route between Sendai and Ishinomaki, via Miyato island.
A basic itinerary is as follows:-
17th – Sendai to Katsura Island
18th – Katsura Island to Miyato Island
19th – Miyato Island to Ishinomaki
20th – At this point, me and my friend will part ways, as he needs to travel back to Tokyo, but I will continue on the trail a little while longer.
If anyone can enlighten me on a few of the following areas of doubt I have about this plan, I would really appreciate it. Have tried to find answers myself, but to no avail.
A) Boat travel within Matsushima Bay. Are there frequent boats from island to island, and do these need to be booked in advance?
B) Accommodation on the islands. From the maps I’ve seen there seems to be some, but limited, accommodation options on the smaller islands, namely Katsura/Nono/Sabusawa. I can’t find much info on the listed places. It feels like it would be a bad idea to turn up unannounced and hope they have space, but perhaps that’s just how it works. Does anybody have any insight on this?
C) Maybe we’re missing something. Maybe this is just a straight up bad plan. Think we’re going to skip some awesome sights by not spending more time in certain places while we’re passing through Matsushima? Please offer some recommendations. We’re all ears.
Many many thanks in advance for your help.