This is where I talk about places & countries I have visited and also guides, information and useful(?) tips for your next trip. Since I have been to the United Kingdom several times these past years, I will naturally keep mentioning the country a lot. A little unusual easy-does-it journey without maps.



@Chap.1 - Harrow,London@ @Chap.2 - Aizu,Fukushima (Part 1)@




Aizu, Fukushima (Part 2)

I heard there had been very little rain for quite a while before I went back there and it hardly rained either while I was in town. People who have vegetable fields must have had a hard time coping with the weather.
They normally take care of their fields early in the morning, while the heat is still bearable. By the time my family finish our breakfast they are already on their way home after the morning labour and often leave some of their freshly picked vegetables at our door. It seems this summer was perticularly good for tomatoes and my mother was quite busy making fresh juice and bottles of tomato sauce etc. Still our friendly neighbours keep visiting us with armfuls of tomatoes - you'll see those little, big and huge red fruit everywhere in the house and end up with keep carrying slices of it into your mouth like it's your duty, without uttering any word.

A working man. It was rather late in the morning and I was all of a sweat just walking around and found him quietly working in the merciless sun. Incredible.



My mother told me to take a picture of the plant when we were out for a walk after supper. The little tree-like plant is Konnyaku potato or arum root.



A train of Aizu Tadami Line, which runs from Koide in Niigata to Aizu Wakamatsu. Single-track, stops every little station, good old Diesel engine car, just two cars long. Naturally there is no air-conditioning system except those little fans on the ceiling, so you are promised to have a good sweat if you have to use this line in summertime. There are about 7 trains running throughout the day and if you miss one, you're in trouble.


'Akabeko' or Red Cattle on the platform of Aizu Wakamatsu, a transfer station. The cattle is a souvenir of nereby town Yanaizu and normally paper-made painted bright red. It is a symbol of a famous temple there, based on a story of a cattle which was so loyal to its master and worked so hard for him to build the temple that it finally fell down to the ground bleeding all over its body and died. So it's a blood-soaked cattle everybody buys as a souvenir - good story, isn't it?


Transfer to Banetsu West Line at Wakamatsu and get to Koriyama, and change again to Touhoku Shinkansen bullet-train to get to Tokyo. About 4 hours and a half trip - well, I have to get to Shinjuku from here and another 40 minutes ride on a packed train, standing all the way to my town. Hummm.



So here I am, back in town after breathing plenty of country air. Where shall I take you next?


Back to the English Front Page