Paulien in Aizu-Wakamatsu
10 Mar 2007
In March, Paulien came to visit us. The weather is great and there is still snow, but the ski season is finished. We take her to the Five Color Lakes. Like the name says: five lakes with different colors. We have been here a couple of times, but never saw the five different colors...
For some Japanese people it doesn't matter whether there is snow or not, there is always an occasion for a picknick. This group was on a snow-shoe-hiking-tour. You tie tennis racket kind of shoes under your shoes, so you don't sink too deep into the snow. We stay nicely on the paths, so we can do our walk on normal shoes.
In the Aizu-Wakamatsu area is enough to see and do. We take Paulien to Ouchi-juku and To-No-Hetsuri. Ouchi-juku is a small village with houses with thatched roofs. It is usually very busy in the weekend, but we are late, so it looks kind of deserted.
At To-No-Hetsuri it looks like the pillars were chiseled out of the rock cliffs. It all was caused by erosion. It looks very impressive.
On Sunday we show here around in Aizu. We take the tourist bus, which drives you for 500 yen past all the touristy places. Of course we visit the castle, Aizu-Wakamatsu's pride.
We also go to Iimoriyama, this is the place where a group of young samurai committed suicide because they thought the castle had fallen into enemy hands. Unfortunately that wasn't the case, so their deaths were in vain.
We also go to the samurai museum and the birthplace of Dr. Noguchi.
Of course we have to explain the concept "love hotel". In Aizu, close to the castle, is a love hotel which you cannot miss. The outside was painted in orange, pink and green. Here you can rent rooms for a whole night or part of a night, for couples that cannot spend time at home together. It is not a brothel, but often the hotels look very cheap and tacky.
The photo's give an impression of the room. When you made your choice of room, you take the key and at the reception desk pay for the amount of time you want to use the room for.
For some Japanese people it doesn't matter whether there is snow or not, there is always an occasion for a picknick. This group was on a snow-shoe-hiking-tour. You tie tennis racket kind of shoes under your shoes, so you don't sink too deep into the snow. We stay nicely on the paths, so we can do our walk on normal shoes.
In the Aizu-Wakamatsu area is enough to see and do. We take Paulien to Ouchi-juku and To-No-Hetsuri. Ouchi-juku is a small village with houses with thatched roofs. It is usually very busy in the weekend, but we are late, so it looks kind of deserted.
At To-No-Hetsuri it looks like the pillars were chiseled out of the rock cliffs. It all was caused by erosion. It looks very impressive.
On Sunday we show here around in Aizu. We take the tourist bus, which drives you for 500 yen past all the touristy places. Of course we visit the castle, Aizu-Wakamatsu's pride.
We also go to Iimoriyama, this is the place where a group of young samurai committed suicide because they thought the castle had fallen into enemy hands. Unfortunately that wasn't the case, so their deaths were in vain.
We also go to the samurai museum and the birthplace of Dr. Noguchi.
Of course we have to explain the concept "love hotel". In Aizu, close to the castle, is a love hotel which you cannot miss. The outside was painted in orange, pink and green. Here you can rent rooms for a whole night or part of a night, for couples that cannot spend time at home together. It is not a brothel, but often the hotels look very cheap and tacky.
The photo's give an impression of the room. When you made your choice of room, you take the key and at the reception desk pay for the amount of time you want to use the room for.