The boatman's talk is informative - I was a little tired, so I decided to get on board. The boatman explained about Matsue Castle, the townscape, and its history while we cruised in the sunken kotatsu. We had to duck down four times on the way to the lowest part of the bridge! That was fun too.

Lovely boat tour in Matsue - The City of Water - Thoroughly enjoyed this little cruise around the canals of Matsue which surround the Matsue Castle. Although I do not speak Japanese and couldn’t understand the guide, it was still quite enjoyable. On the tour you will pass under 17 bridges. Some of these are very low, but the boats are build so that the roof collapses so it can pass under the bridge. If you are unable to sit on the floor, or do not want to lean in when the roof collapses, this might not be for you.

Great boat trip - you can turn up and get tickets on the day - Super little boats buzzing around on the Matsue canals. We joined a boat ride in August 2023 at a cost of 1200 Yen per adult and 600 per child. Most of the other passengers were Japanese and enjoyed the commentary from our fantastic tour guide and skipper. Occasionally, he also played little bits of recorded English commentary for us. It was a shame not to learn more about our skipper’s personal connection to the town and canals, though. He was very funny and made our fellow passengers laugh a lot. At one point, he sang a local song, which we all enjoyed. The canals themselves are beautiful. They are dotted with low bridges. Some are so low that the canopy of the boat has to be lowered, and all passengers must fold themselves close to the floor. An interesting experience! We saw herons, egrets, swallows, millions of dragonflies, and one solitary terrapin.

An excellent boat tour of Matsue! - Excellent tour! We use the hop-on hop-off feature and we broke up our exploration of the city on foot with very entertaining boat tours. There is an English speaker system that explains the sites. If you are lucky to have another passenger translate what the guides are explaining it is a very entertaining ride! Thank you!!! The boat’s roof collapses as you go under bridges. Super fun and saw so much wildlife and nature. An excellent way to explore the city and a must for anyone exploring Matsue!! So much fun!

Excellent boat ride! A must for anyone visiting Matsue - Excellent experience! Super friendly staff and an entertaining ride experiencing the history and nature of the city. The boat’s lower the roofs for the bridges and it is very fun. An excellent introduction into exploring Matsue. We did the hop-on hop-off and it was so much fun breaking up walking with boat rides. We saw so much wildlife! They very nicely had an English speaker system explaining different spots but we were lucky on a ride and had another passenger willing to translate the guide for us and we learned even more. Thank you!!! Excellent boat ride! Recommend for anyone visiting Matsue!

Great experience - It was a nice little cruise around the Matsue castle with good guidance by boatman. I was walking around one of the commercial district after lunch and accidentally found this boat tour. The fee is JPY1,500 for a day pass that allow you to hop on and off anytime during operation hour 9:00-16:00. There are 3 boat stops along the Matsue castle and runs approximately every 20 minutes so you can use this boat as your transportation. You can buy a ticket at counter and resister your name. When you re-boarding make sure to resister your name again at ticket counter before going to pier because operation vendor tracks passengers information . If you are visiting cool seasons you may want to bring warm jacket as you will feel liver breeze. 初めて松江を訪れ市内散策中に見つけ乗船してみました。¥1,500で１日乗り降り中です。20分おきに出発するのでそれほど待つことなく乗れます。松江城を一周するので、途中で降りてお城の散策をし、帰りはぐるっと回って帰りました。全周50分位の乗船時間です。

September cruise - What fun this was to slowly explore the canals around Matsue castle. We did the 50 minute (4km) tour - spotting birds and turtles, passing historic sights and laying flat on the boat’s tatami under the very low bridges. The recorded narration (in Hearn’s lovely Irish accent) paired with a colourful map, helped locate points of interest and best photography spots along the way. The smiley boatman even sang us a song in one of the acoustically perfect tunnels.