These events were devastating to the country. Countless lives were tragically lost and many communities were completely destroyed. Emotional and physical scars may forever be with the people affected by it and many will never be able to return home. However, it wouldn't be right to define Fukushima simply based on these recent incidents.
It's worth noting that a great deal of misinformation and misconceptions exist about the disasters. I've heard too often people making comments based simply on what they read on the internet somewhere or saw on the news. But even besides this point, the Japanese people have found ways to persevere and move forward in their lives. The majority of the prefecture is still completely habitable and life is going on as normal. Fukushima is still a beautiful place with rich culture, rather than the nuclear wasteland some sources have portrayed. Thus, my hope is for anyone reading this to do so without preconceptions.
A few weeks ago I took a short weekend road trip to Fukushima Prefecture with my friend, Nozomi. We split up our trip by going to Fukushima City (福島市) on the first day and Aizuwakamatsu (会津若松市) on the second day. Fukushima City, the capital of the prefecture, is located in the north central area, while Aizuwakamatsu is found on the western side.
Fukushima City
We arrived in Fukushima City just as the sun finished creeping over the horizon. In the hazy early hours that day, we made our first stop at a small shrine right in the middle of the city. It seemed particularly quiet there and felt peaceful. Coming from Aomori which had recently been pummeled by heavy snow, we were pleasantly surprised to see there was very little. Ironically, it started snowing just minutes later—and wouldn’t really stop all day. In fact, our trip happened to coincide with record-breaking snowfall in the region (including a rare snow storm in Tokyo). Nevertheless, we didn’t let the weather deter us from having fun!Walking around the city streets, we were surprised to see so many temples near one another. By pure chance, we stumbled upon no less than five distinct and temples within 30 minutes of walking. They were so easily accessible that we stopped at most of them, including Shinjō-in Temple (真浄院), Seiganji Temple (誓願寺), Kozenji Temple (康善寺), and Toanji Temple (東安寺).
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| Shinjō-in Temple (真浄院) |
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| Kozenji Temple (康善寺) |
After strolling around downtown, we drove a short distance to Hanamiyama Park (花見山公園, lit. “cherry blossom mountain park”). This is one of the top destinations in Fukushima during the cherry blossom season; but we definitely were not there during that season. The snow had accumulated quite a bit by the time we got there, but we still wanted to check it out.
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| Hanamiyama Park (花見山公園), in the winter! |
The park features a small pond and stone monuments at the base and has several small trails that you can walk along to ascend up the “mountain” (hill).
Despite the winter weather and snow, it was still an interesting experience to see the place covered in the white powder. We even spotted some tiny yellow flowers still hanging on to a few trees there. Not all was lost!
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| No cherry blossoms, but still found these tiny flowers |
After our adventure there, we were freezing cold so we decided to check out the Fukushima Prefectural Museum of Art (福島県立美術館) for something to do indoors. We ate a simple lunch of sandwiches, yogurt, and fruit in the connected library, then walked down a few hallways to the impressively expansive museum foyer.
We bought tickets (260-yen each) to enter the general exhibits and then casually made our way through. There were some nice works along the way but the final exhibit really caught my eye. It was a series of woodblock prints titled, “Winter in Aizu (会津の冬)”, by Japanese artist, Kiyoshi Saito (斎藤清). I thought his series was amazing because he was able to capture the essence of cold, wintery, rural Japan so well and with a beautifully simplistic yet bold artistic style.
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| At the Fukushima Prefectural Museum of Art (福島県立美術館) |
Later that evening, we went to a nice festival in the city called, "Valentine Candle Lighting and Fireworks, 2014" (バレンタインキャンドルナイト&花火), set up at the Village of Four Seasons Park (福島市四季の里). It was the perfect way to close out our first day in Fukushima!
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| Winter festival with a Valentine's Day theme |
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| I loved how the used the spotlights at the festival |
Aizuwakamatsu
Along the way were some great views of the surrounding mountains. One of the most famous ones in Fukushima is called Mt. Azumakofuji. Unfortunately it's completely unaccessible during the winter so the picture below shows as close as we could get. If it's possible I'd like to go back during the summer though.
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| Mt. Azumakofuji |
Our first (and unplanned) stop was at Yasuragi no Sato Aizu-mura (やすらぎの郷会津村, "Peaceful Countryside of Aizu Village"). It's the site of a Buddhist temple with expansive gardens and a colossal statue called Aizu Jibokan-nonzō (会津慈母観音像, "Aizu Affectionate Mother Statue"). More specifically, the statue depicts Guanyin, a bodhisattva ("enlightened being") of compassion. This figure is commonly used for statues in many asian countries.
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| Aizu Jibokan-nonzō (会津慈母観音像) |
It was cool to see this place covered in snow in the middle of winter, but like Hanamiyama, it's definitely a place to visit in the warmer months. It was totally deserted when we were there and the gardens and trails were more of less inaccessible. Aside from the statue and gardens, there is a temple, pagoda, and some other things like that to check out.
The next place Nozomi and I went to was Mount Iimori (飯盛山, Iimoriyama). The site has implications with the Boshin War (1868-69), a civil war that was being fought between the Tokugawa Shogunate (samurai clans) and new government forces seeking to return political power to the imperial court. At this time, the Aizu clam formed byakkotai, a group of about 300 young, teenage samurai intended to serve as reserve units. During one of the battles, 20 of the boys got separated and retreated to Iimori Hill, which overlooked the castle town below. When they spotted black smoke thought to be coming from the castle, they committed seppuku (ritual suicide); one boy survived the attempt. The boys were actually mistaken and the black smoke was not coming from the castle but rather other buildings nearby. Today, a memorial stands for the boys, whom are all buried there as well.
On of the most interesting things to see at Mount Iimori is an architecturally unique Buddhist temple called Sazaedo (栄螺堂, or さざえ堂); or officially named Entsu Sansodo (円通三匝堂).
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| Exterior of Sazaedo at Mount Iimori |
The structure has sloping double-helix ramps that ascend clockwise up to the top, and then counter-clockwise to the bottom. Originally, it contained 33 statues of the Kansai Kannon which would be seen while ascending and descending the temple. This was meant to give common folk a way to make the Saigoku Kannon Pilgrimage, rather than travel all the way to Kansai to complete.
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| The interior of Sazaedo is quite amazing |
After Mount Iimori, we drove to Aizu-Wakamatsu Castle (会津若松城), also known as Tsuruga Castle (鶴ヶ城). Located right in the middle of the city, it's a concrete replica of the original, war-damanged castle that was demolished in 1874. The original castle was built in 1384 by Ashina Naomori, and was involved in numerous conflicts in the following centuries. At one point, Date Masamune, the greatest warlord of the Tōhoku area even captured the castle only to give it up soon after. One of the notable physical features of the castle is that it's the only one in Japan with a naturally-red roof. We explored the castle grounds as well as the inside, consisting of a multi-floor museum and viewing deck on the top.
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| Aizu-Wakamatsu Castle (会津若松城) |
Finally, our last stop in Aizuwakamatsu was at Aizu Buke Yashiki (会津武家屋敷, "Aizu Old Samurai Residences"). These used to be the living quarters for some of the top ranked samurai in the area during the Edo Period. It's a pretty neat place, as you can see various rooms and explore the grounds there.
The place is set up with mannequins and a variety of old samurai gear, tools, schools, etc., to make it easier to imagine what it may have been like at the time when samurai lived there.
We finished the walkthrough just as the residences were closing down for the day. We also had to drive all the way back to Aomori that night, so we didn't waste much time getting out of there.
Despite the wintery conditions, I think we were able to see a lot during the two days in Fukushima and I'd like to come back again some day (especially in spring or summer). My favorite places were the Four Seasons Park where we joined the Valentine Candle Lighting event, and Mt. Iimori where we checked out Sazaedo. It was a really fun trip! And in writing this post, I learned more about the historical background of many of these places. I hope others find it interesting and feel inspired to travel here as well.
