Gojashinuma Hiking Trail, Tsurugajo Castle, and Sake Brewery

There is so much to see in Japan so we opted for a tour this time. It was a 5-hour drive to the Fukushima area where they had the large earthquake and subsequent nuclear mess a few years ago. We didn't get too close to that area:) but we went to Mt. Bandai and the hiking trail nearby which has multiple ponds with different colors of water. The water color is beautiful and mostly in blues and greens. The color change is from volcanic activity that happened over 150 years ago. The brilliant water colors paired with the fall foliage was amazing. We just happened to pick the perfect time to go.

 We were joking that the background was so beautiful that it looked fake. We had her pose like Cady was doing a photo shoot at Sears.

After the 3.5 k hike around the ponds, we drove 30 minutes to the Tsurugajo Castle. This is a replica of the original that was destroyed in 1874 after an earthquake damaged it. The castle was rebuild in 1965 but they used the original 600 year old base as the foundation. It was remarkably cooler in the base and due to the temperature difference it was originally used to store salt.

 The kids all needed to try the delicious cherry blossom ice cream. No one was complaining about this yummy treat.

There was a terrible war here about 140 years ago in which the samurai of Aizu fought to keep the Meiji government from opening Japan to the rest of the world. 2,000 people died and this was the end of the samurai way of life. They told a story of how 5,000 people took refuge in the castle walls, but 250 women and children didn't make it inside. They killed themselves on the street in front to die an honorable death.    They also told of the Byakkotai tragedy in which 20 teenage sons of high-ranking samurai committed suicide after seeing the fires coming up from the castle area and assumed that the castle had fallen to the enemy. 19 of the 15-17 year olds died with one survivor. They said that the survivor was so ashamed that he did not succeed and lived the rest of his life in shame and hiding. It's such an interesting insight into the Japanese culture and their devotion to their way of life. Our kids had a hard time understanding how a child would make that decision.


And to end the long day we went to the sake brewery. This ball is made of cedar and hung from the eaves when they are making a new batch of sake. It is green when it is hung and then when it is brown the local residents know that there is a yummy batch of sake ready.

Matt sampled a couple of kinds and the kids and I watched. I'm not much of a sake drinker but the one I tried was pretty smooth.

We were exhausted last night when we got home at 10:30. We left at 4:30 am so it was a long day.