A few weeks ago the time came for me to leave the University of Aizu and go back to America to prepare for school in the fall. I left my dormitory for the last time, and cleaned up the desk I used in the laboratory I joined.
Before I went back to america I spent a few days with my girlfriend in a tiny town south of Aizu. In the past when I have traveled two and from Aizu I have either taken the bus, or the shinkansen (bullet train). This time however we took a slower train that went due south out of Aizu towards Tokyo. The town that we stayed at was along this train line.
The town was a lot of fun. Pictured above is a BBQ that we had one day, while below is a photo of a sign with a warning about bears. When we were there we had both just finished difficult semesters at school, and so it was nice to be able to take a break.
The train station in this town didn't have very many things. It wasn't staffed, and so tickets were sold on the train instead. Inside the station there were a lot of posters however. I liked the poster pictured above. The words at the top says only "Come", while the words beneath the cherry blossom tree say "Fukushima Prefecture".
The poster pictured below is an advertisement for a festival held in the town we stayed in. It was taking place just a few weeks after our visit. The photo beneath the poster is a picture of the same location. The poster really makes the city seem exciting, while visiting when it is not the festival shows that there is not much there.
There was a very pretty garden nearby where we stayed, and the cabins themselves looked very pretty.
When we went to Tokyo at the end of the trip we took a surprisingly fancy train. The one pictured here wasn't a shinkansen, but didn't go as slowly as I expected. When I was back in Tokyo I prepared to leave to go back to America.
