Preparation for winter

Winter is almost here. These last few weeks have been cloudy and rainy with the weather just above freezing. Here in Aizu, there is a lot of preparation visible in anticipation of the first snow.

I have heard that when it starts snowing here, it won't stop for a long time. There are many different supports that have been put in place to protect plants from the snow.

On one of the main roads there has been construction. Here you can see tubes under the sidewalk which may be used for heating.

Some things about driving in the winter are also different from Chicago here. The city does not use road salt so many people will buy new winter tires regularly and pick their car with winter driving in mind.

Something that I thought was neat was a system for melting snow in a parking lot that sprayed hot water out of the ground. It was like an automatic sprinkler system for asphalt. I wasn't able to get a good picture of this however.

One additional major part of the winter preparation here has been to add new walls to the University of Aizu campus. Under walkways there have been plastic walls installed to create a snow barrier around the campus.

All of these preparations can be a little ominous, but I'm expecting that the snow will be pretty. And I like skiing...

Nakagoya trip

One of the clubs I've joined at the University of Aizu is called Nakagoya. Two weekends ago we took a trip to a small town to help the people who lived there.

We first harvested vegetables from a field. One of the vegetables was Daikon (大根, literally "big root"). We then cleaned the vegetables and prepared them for travel.

After the vegetable harvest we went to some unused farmland to plant cherry trees which will blossom in a few years.

Finally, we went into a building of the town to have lunch and talk with the town's residents. One resident said that the building we went into was 150 years old.

The inside of the building was very different from the modern houses that I have seen. The room we went into took up half of the building, and near the center there was a large fire pit ( Irori ) used for cooking and heating the room.

We had Miso soup made using some of the vegetables we harvested.

The town has about 10 homes, and all of the inhabitants are elderly. Many of them came to the meeting we had with them. One issue that the town is trying to face is that all of the inhabitants are aging, their children have moved out, and there are no new people moving into the town. As a result, the future of their town is uncertain. This problem is not unique. Japan has an aging population and a low birth rate, so there are probably many small towns with uncertain futures.

Google Photo Creations

I use Google's photo service, Google Photos, to store all of the pictures that I take. There is a feature you can use where Google Photos will sometimes show you creations it has made using your uploads. I have been pretty impressed with the things it has made with my photos, and so I have uploaded a few of them here. The picture below this is the non-enhanced version of the one above.

My favorite creations are these videos. This is one that combined pictures and videos from my trip to Tokyo. It even added music!

Here is one of the source videos of me falling over in the bubble suit.

Sakudari Kannon Temple

In Aizumisato, another place that I saw was the Sakudari Kannon Temple.

It was a little unnerving to stand on the edge. One website said that the temple was originally built in 830 and has been reconstructed several times.

Hidden behind the temple, there is a small cave filled with rocks. The same website as above says that the stones are dressed in red caps like jizo , an Japanese Buddhist deity.

Tsuruga Castle

This past week I went to the castle in Aizu-Wakamatsu. As an international student, Fukushima prefecture has given me a free pass good for admission into many historic sights in Fukishima, so I was able to enter the castle without paying the $5 entrance fee. Inside there are many relics and photographs of the old inhabitants of the castle.

The castle as it exists today was reconstructed in 1965. Around the base of the castle keep there are ruins of buildings that were not reconstructed as well as a large embankment, moat, and bridge.

I spent some time walking around the castle grounds and there were many things to see, including some small shrines and neat looking trees.

A Japanese friend of mine who is living in Aizu said that nearly all of the trees around the castle are Sakura trees. In the fall this isn't apparent, but in the spring there will be endless cherry blossoms. I had heard that cherry blossoms are very popular in Japan, but it looks like there will be more than I was expecting in the spring.

When I went to the castle I was with a group of mostly other international students and a very patient Japanese friend. We took some group photos and went to a tea ceremony together.

Tsuruga is very pretty.