Fukushima in the Fall: Koriyama and Minamisoma Areas

11/22/16
I took these photos on a bus from a work meeting. It shows the fall colors very well. It inspired the trip that I took the following sunday on 11/20/16.

11/20/16

So, I’ve been living in Fukushima, Japan for four months now, and I’ve had the privelige of watching the leaves change color during the autumn season. Fukushima is famous in Japan for having beautiful fall seasons. It’s very mountainous and has many types of trees that color the mountainsides like none other. I was not able to get many pictures during the peak weeks, but last weekend I was able to catch the tail end of it. Even though the yellow leaves have fallen, there are still the orange, red, brown and green of the mountainside. In the pictures you see, any tree that is bare is likely one of the trees that had yellow leaves.

This is the view of a beautiful hillside next to my main school.

I started out bright and early, eager to see a lot of Fukushima with the limited sunlight I had. It gets dark pretty early here. The sun starts setting around 3:30 and its completely dark by 4:30.
I started out from Minamisoma around 9 a.m., and headed west towards Fukushima City.

I saw this old shrine that I’ve passed a few times and never had time to stop. It was pretty run down and neglected, but it was kind-of understandable because the entire Itate area was evacuated five years ago and there are still very few people moving back in right now.

I made it to Kawamata and turned south towards Towa.

In Towa there’s a shrine that has the torii gate by the road. You drive under the torii gate and the shrine is in the forest and up the hill nearby. This one is called Suwa Shrine and it wasn’t neglected. It still had water flowing from its purification fountain.

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I came back to my car and found this cool bug sitting on it.

Continuing on I reached the town of Towa proper which I guess also counts as a suburb/countryside of Nihonmatsu. This town had large statues of characters. I am not sure what they’re made of, but they were pretty cool. I found Olaf, Mike and Goku in his Super Saiyan form, along with some original characters.

I drove on and found another shrine called Shirohige Shrine. The entrance to this shrine around the torii gate was covered with Gingko leaves. It was beautiful. The stone steps on the way up were a little lop-sided, but it was a nice shrine and I enjoyed spending some time there.

I drove on and found some beautiful scenery to take photos of, and drove through a town called Tamura where I found a Christian church! Those are pretty hard to find and I was pretty impressed with the size of it.

A short distance after the town limits.

Not long after I came across Miwatashi Shrine a bit south of Tamura.

At the top of the shrine steps it had a big, old, dead tree in a wooden shelter. The tree had the straw and paper rope wrapped around it which signifies a holy place, usually a shelter for spirits.

Moving on I realized I was pretty close to Abukuma-do Cave, so I decided to take a little detour and check out that shrine that I was unable to see the last time.

Here are the streetlights that you start seeing in the towns around Abukuma-do. I think they look pretty cool.

This is the manhole cover in Abukuma. It shows the gift shop thats at the entrance/exit of Abukuma-do.

I saw this torii gate up on a hill behind some houses and stopped to visit it. I realized that the path was un-accessible without trespassing on someone's property. So I got back in my car and continued on.

A little Buddhist shrine on the side of the road.

Here was a stonemason shop.

And this happened to my odometer during this trip.

The shrine at the top is attached to the large rock formation that juts out of the ground. It is a simple shrine, and there’s not much to it.  But I was able to take some beautiful photos of the autumn trees covering the mountainside at Abukuma-do.

Headed up to the shrine at the top of the rock in the parking lot.

Here is the little shrine at the top. To the right is the rest of the rock.

The view from here is absolutely gorgeous! You can see the town below and the drastic juxtaposition of the trees on the mountainside.

Here you can see the cool lookout-point next to the parking lot. 

The rock and shrine as seen from below.

I found out that the mascot for the caves is a characterization of the constellation of Orion.

On the way back down I saw a few small Buddha statues tucked away off the main road.

I then decided to head farther west and made my way towards Ono. Where I came across a Buddhist temple called Fugenji. This one had a little swing for children and beautiful orange leaves littering the ground on a path behind the temple that led to a fairly large cemetery. It was peaceful there.

The big Buddhist bell.

Here's the children's swing.

This blanket of red leaves on the ground is stunning!

A little farther along I came across another Buddhist temple called Gokurakuji (極楽寺.) This temple had a whole bunch of beautiful statues depicting Gods and Buddhas and Bodhisattvas. This temple seemed to be meticulously maintained, and it was beautiful. There was also a small monk cemetery and a larger public cemetery near this temple.

Here was a tall, beautiful statue of Kannon-Sama. I couldn't get closer because a Jorou-Gumo was blocking my path, and if Japanese mythology has taught me anything, if I ventured closer she would eat me.

This little statue was at the top of the first staircase.

Looking back on the way I came.

Here are the statues of all the different Buddhas and Bodhisattvas. A lot of them were covered in litchen, which I thought gave them character and beauty.

A statue of a traveling Buddhist monk.

This is the entrance to the temple as seen from the street.

By this time it was nearing 2 p.m. and I knew my remaining time was coming to a close. I crossed some bridges and found some beautiful countryside.

This is a persimmon tree. The leaves fall off but the fruit remain on the tree. This creates a beautiful, unique tree. I am in love with how these trees look and was keeping my eyes peeled all day for a tree that was close enough to the road that I could get a good picture. I finally found one. Behold!

The pretty Sakura Lake as seen from a bridge above.

From here I headed north and I stumbled on the town of Miharu and found their claim to fame, the Taizakura (Great Sakura)! It’s obviously not the season for cherry blossom viewing, but I took a look around anyways.

There was a cute little Inari shrine just to the left of the great Sakura tree. And I talked with a bunch of old people that were coming out of a little… community center? Right across from the shrine. I also spoke to some young people near where I parked my car. I was surprised that there were so many people around this park, especially out of season.

This Kitsune is rather unique in that its portrayed with a baby fox. So this one is obviously the female kitsune.

The one with the ball is the male.

 Up behind the tree there is a little park and a great view of a nearby lake. There is also a little cemetery. I think this view of the country side from behind the Taizakura is my favorite of the day.  It was breathtaking and I couldn’t help but stand there for a while.

I continued on and came across another shrine called Miwatashi shrine. This one had a long staircase, followed by a narrow strip of moss-covered land followed by another long staircase! This one just kept going! It was beautiful.

Next, heading north I came upon Kashimadai Shrine. The sun was quickly leaving, and it made this shrine quite creepy. The entrance was beautiful, but once I walked into the forest and saw the many little shrines dotting the hill, it became super creepy.

My camera worked a miracle and was able to capture light that I swear wasn’t present. I kept looking over my shoulder because I was convinced that someone was watching me and telling me to go away. I let myself feel the creepiness of it all. I tripped on the leaf litter and nearly turned my ankle, but I was fine. I didn’t spend much time at that place.

A lot of the little shrines in the forest were stuffed with paper.

The beautiful view of the entrance/exit of the shrine.

I left and continued north. The sun had dipped behind the horizon and I knew I had ten minutes before it got completely dark.

That was when I came upon an amazing shrine to the east of Motomiya called Nagaya Shrine. This one took up an entire hillside and it was very steep. The shrine had intricately carved komainu (lion-dogs) that I thought were beautiful. There were also lights on inside the two buildings of the shrine. I was pretty surprised, I’ve never seen lights on inside these little country shrines before. This one was pretty well taken care of. Lovely view as well.

When I made it back to my car the sun was gone, and I knew that my adventure time was over. I am super impressed with my camera, because these pictures look a lot brighter than things actually were at the time.  If I had fully realized the extent of how good my pictures still looked I would have continued on, but as it was I decided to go meet some of my friends in Fukushima City for dinner and karaoke.

My friends had spent their day taking a tour of Nihonmatsu and trying out a certain phone app for communicating with people across languages. They were featured on a Fukushima News Station later that evening.

Felipe

Mercedez

Katie

Cormac

For dinner we went to a little restaurant that only did gyoza. It was amazing! Afterwards we went out to karaoke. I love this advertisement for the karaoke place.

After that we were all pretty tired so I drove back to Minamisoma.