#samuraicityaizu

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)!

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