#samuraicityaizu

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Aizu Hanko Nisshin-kan, one of the best of some 300 clan schools during the Edo era. You can visit this amazing reconstruction of the school in the city of Aizuwakamatsu, Fukushima Prefecture - “reconstruction” because the original was destroyed during the Boshin War in the mid-late 19th century. The school was used to teach the sons of Aizu’s samurai. Today it can teach visitors a thing or two about kyudo (a kind of archery) and the meditative discipline of zazen (and yes, discipline is required to hold gangly legs in the correct pose)!

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Oyakuen garden in the city of Aizuwakamatsu, Fukushima Prefecture, looks all the more magical with a dusting of snow, although they haven’t been having much of it in those parts of Japan this year