Aizu - Part One

Rory was home and we were all so excited for him to join in the touring fun! Up nice and early at 3:50am. We were pushing it trying to get every last minute of sleep we could:) Aizu is approximately 400 miles north of Yokosuka hence the early morning! This town was one of the most prosperous towns in the Edo Period and is known as a castle town. The Samurai were the big wigs in the land during the Edo Period. To give you a Hollywood reference (as off base as that may be) for the Edo Period, the movie the Last Samurai was supposed to be set during the end of the Edo Period.

Dylan and Daddy hanging out on the bus at 4:30am!


Surprise!!!
As we headed north we headed into the snow!


Dylan loved crunching the the snow on the side of the path:)


To help keep Dylan occupied Daddy did some singing. This was a major hit and Dylan kept using baby sign language to ask for more - encore, encore Daddy!!



The first stop on our trip was Kura no Sato - Old Store-House District

In the above pictures you saw the village of "kuras" in Kitakata. A "kura" is an old-style building made with special thick walls due to their use as store houses as well as homes and shops. If you notice in the above picture the window "shutters" are extra thick, this is a sign that the building was used as a store house for goods such as soy sauce or miso (made from soy). There were extra thick doors and windows on the warehouses to protect the merchandise from the elements. You may also have notice thatched roof building. From the articles inside it looks as though this one was used as a residence. The area we visited is a sight-seeing attraction but there are still kura houses in use today.