September 19-20, 2020
Fukushima is Japan’s third largest prefecture, after Hokkaido and Iwate. Before moving to Japan, my only mental association with Fukushima Prefecture was the nuclear disaster that occurred at Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant as a result of the 2011 Tohoku earthquake and tsunami. Since my mom is probably the most loyal reader of this blog, I’d like to first say that we didn’t travel anywhere near the exclusion zone (this trip). To be sure, I looked up Daiichi Power Plant on Google Maps. For anyone curious, it currently has 106 reviews and a 2.8-star rating.
Within Japan, Fukushima is better known for mountainous terrain, onsen resorts, sake production, and the many seasonal fruits harvested throughout the year. Still conscious of the ongoing pandemic, we planned this slow-paced, relaxing road trip with a focus on spending time outdoors.
Day 1: Utsunomiya –> Aizuwakamatsu –> Goshikinuma –> Sohara Lake
Another lazy, semi-planned road trip for us. We left Saturday morning with a vague idea of some attractions to see, a bag of conbini snacks, and a hotel reservation for the evening. Our trip happened to line up with two holidays in Japan: Respect for the Aged Day and the Autumn Equinox. Poor, hard-working Andrew didn’t get any extra time off for these holidays, but a lot of people do. That meant traffic and crowds were a bit worse than we expected in some places.
“The way of the Samurai is in death”
We drove 2.5 hours on the expressway to Aizuwakamatsu in Fukushima Prefecture. One of the last samurai strongholds during the Edo period, Aizuwakamatsu’s main claim to fame is the site of a mass ritual suicide during the Boshin War. The Byakkotai (White Tiger) Unit, made up of teenage samurai, arrived on Iimori Hill during a battle to see smoke engulfing the castle in Aizuwakamatsu. Assuming the castle had fallen and their lord perished, 20 of the boys attempted suicide and 19 died. There’s a memorial here commemorating the loyalty of these warriors. Fun fact: Benito Mussolini admired the loyalty of these boys so much that he donated a column from Pompeii to the memorial. So, that’s fun.
Off to the side of the memorial, there is a path that leads to Sazaedo Temple. I’m kind of a heathen with approximately 0 interest in most temples. BUT, this one is a little different! Built in 1796 (fairly young by temple standards), this 16m tall wooden temple has a double helix staircase design. Visitors traveling upwards never bump into those coming back down. Plus, it is a designated nationally important cultural property. So. You wouldn’t want to miss that.
“On earth there is no heaven, but there are pieces of it.”
After Lunch, we continued onwards to Goshikinuma. Goshikinuma, literally “Five Color Pond,” consists of more than 5 ponds that are said to display more than 5 different colors. Your guess is as good as mine. We parked at the largest of the ponds, Bishamonnuma. I’ll be honest, it was really just one color. Like, a beautiful color, but I was expecting 5+ colors, you know? Anyway, there’s a walking trail here and you can rent row boats to explore the pond. We decided to rent the row boats on the condition that Andrew be the boat rower. It was pretty spectacular, even if there were less colors than advertised.
From Goshikinuma, we drove to our hotel. Andrew found a guesthouse near Mt. Bandai on the shore of Lake Sohara. Tucked away in the middle of nowhere, we enjoyed craft beers and the sunset on the shore. At the hotel, we ate dinner with the other guests, a foreign couple of university professors and a local man, and talked about opera music, gyoza, and American politics (there is no escape).
Day 2: Sohara Lake –> Mount Azuma-kofuji –> Abukuma Caves –> Utsunomiya
Compared to Japanese travelers, we are early risers. We woke for breakfast at the hotel around 8am. Fully expecting breakfast fish, I was pleasantly surprised by toast, fried eggs, sausages, and baked beans. Not a full English breakfast, but a surprise and delight.
Climb Every Mountain
If you’ve been following the blog at all, you’ll know Andrew has a volcano fetish. We drove about an hour from the hotel to Mt. Azuma-kofuji on the advice of his Japanese teacher to check out the crater hike. We’ve got plenty of volcano experience in Japan at this point, so I can say with confidence this is the easiest volcano trek I’ve done. A mountain road allows you to drive almost to the summit of the mountain. A parking area connects you to some stairs leading to the summit and then you can walk the full circumference of the crater. There’s a steep slope looking down into the crater and the fog and rock formations at the top give it a really otherworldly vibe.
Spelunk
From Mt. Azuma-kofuji we drove south towards Abukuma Caves. Yeah, in addition to volcanoes Andrew also really likes caves. Maybe he missed his calling as a geologist? We broke for lunch at a ramen shop in Tamura that served highly edible ramen. By the time we arrived at Abukuma Caves in the early afternoon, the parking area was jam-packed. Maybe I’m a cave connoisseur at this point or my cave standards are too high… I thought this cave area was just fine. The COVID safety protections here are not great, and the caves were quite crowded with energetic (pushy) children and their loose-handed wranglers. I’ve seen better caves. This cave gets 2.5/5 stars, redeeming qualities are the wide range of soft serve flavors and view over the valley below the visitor center.
From the caves, we made our way back home to Utsunomiya.
