Aizu trip

About three weeks ago myself and the other American exchange students went on a school culture trip to Aizu in the Fukushima prefecture outside of Tokyo.

Our first actual stop for the trip was Ouchijuku a former post along an Edo trade route, the village restored it's appearance to the time of the edo period having all electric wires buried underground. There is one main road through the village with the traditional thatched roof houses that had been turned into stores or restaurants on either side. At the end of the main road is the shrine on the mountain where are able to get a great view of the village. The people working there are extremely nice and I had a small conversation with the man who I bought a phone charm from about my Japanese.

After the village our next stop was the Lacquer Workshop, Japanese lacquer is very famous for the fact that it is long lasting and beautifully painted. They make a guarantee that the lacquer goods will last for 100 years if kept in the right conditions and due to this even something small is ridiculously expensive, gorgeous but expensive.

After the workshop tour we made our way to the hotel that we were to stay at for the evening. There after dinner I spent most of my time in the two onsen that the hotel had to offer. Japan being made by volcanoes they have many natural hot springs called onsens. There are many types of hot springs some that are man made then some that are completely natural.

The main purpose of a hot springs is to just go and relax in a nice hot bath. Now most westerners are a little wary of hot springs cause you are taking a a bath with a bunch of strangers. I don't have a problem with it, the baths are separated between men and women and it's nothing nobody has ever seen before, plus some of the onsen especially the outdoor ones are amazingly landscaped and designed. When you go, you go into the changing room to leave your clothes , then you enter the onsen where they have sometimes separated shower stalls sometimes not where you go to clean off (this is the most important part of going to an onsen), shampoo, conditioner and soap are provided for you. Once you have washed yourself twice you can go into the baths sometimes there is just one but bigger onsens will have more pools for you to soak in. The normal temperature is about 41 degrees C so that's about 105 degrees F.

Our first stop on day two for the blue bus was Aizu Bukke-yashiki the residence of Tanomo Saigou the chief retainer for Aizu. Here Tanomo lived until the start of the Boshin War in 1868 where the Samurai of Aizu, who were sided with the Tokugawa shogunate, fought against those who were on the side of those who wanted to restore the imperial power. What is widely known about Bukke-yashiki is that when the Aizu force was defeated the women of the Saigou family fearing capture at the hands of the opposing forces all committed seppuku (ritual suicide).

The scene is depicted in the manor with mannequins because while they had all committed seppuku one had not completed the ritual and when an opposing warrior stormed in she asked that if he was an ally to finish it for her. He graciously did. There are other parts of the mansion that are interesting like the lavatory that has sand underneath as well as a little cart that was able to be taken out so that doctors could judge the health of the samurai.

Unfortunately our next stop of Tsuruga castle was under reconstruction therefore we wouldn't be able to see out of it. Now they had said there was just walls up which I didn't think was too bad, in actuality there was full fledged scaffolding and draping making the castle into a giant box that they tied a giant picture of what the castle was supposed to look like to. Because we couldn't see the actual castle we were given tickets to see the tea house as well as consolation.

The castle was burned down at the end of the Boshin war in 1868 by the winning forces, the castle though still standing after the initial onslaught was burned down because the imperial forces did not what it to become a symbol of the rebellion for the citizens. It was rebuilt in the 1960's and then made into a museum of Aizu samurai culture however like all castles there are no elevators therefore you have to walk up all the stairs of the 5 story castle. Now the museum is similar to most other castle museums in Japan, meaning everything in Japanese so no help to me but the portion that sticks with me and most likely others is the story of the Byakkotai.

The Byakkotai were one of the units of the Aizu forces that consisted of 16 and 17 year old boys; while fighting, a group of twenty were separated from the main group. They then went to the Iimori hill where they they saw the castle and village burning thinking that everything they had fought for was lost they all committed seppuku there on the hill. Sadly the castle had not yet been taken over, it was only the village that was on fire around the castle. The story of this group of Byakkotai was able to be told because one of the soldiers survived and was saved by a peasant. There is a monument for the boys on Iimori hill so that people can remember the boys and their sacrifice.

After the castle we made a lunch stop at a rest stop in the middle of nowhere that sadly was not prepared for 90+ hungry Americans. Therefore we were taken to a second rest stop after that one so that those who didn't get food could have something to eat. We arrived back in Shinjuku around 6pm that Sunday where we then made our way back to our homes for much needed rest. But it was nice that when coming back into Tokyo Mt. Fuji was visible for us to see, it was nice little homecoming gift I would say.