It’s a chilly Saturday afternoon in February and temperatures are creeping just above the freezing mark — a time of year when most seaside destinations are devoid of leisure travelers. But this is Matsushima, one of the fabled “Nihon Sankei” — or “Three Views of Japan” — and it’s buzzing with tourists. Its fame dates back a few hundred years, to Japan’s Edo period, when a Confucius scholar named Hayashi Gahō traveled the country by foot. In 1643 he published a book based on his journey in which called out three destinations that, in his eyes, offered incredible scenic beauty — Amanohashidate, Miyajima and, you guessed it, Matsushima. It’s easy to see why he deemed this little fishing town in Japan’s Miyagi prefecture as worthy of inclusion.