Today things came to an end for us, our short trip is unfortunately over. But to finish it off, on our last day we really had great weather once again with bright blue skies. And on such a beautiful day we were of course not in a hurry to get home, but wanted to have one more look around Aizu Wakamatsu.

No sooner said than done, and what could be more obvious than to stop by Tsuruga-jo Castle once again. A walk inside the castle walls is always wonderfully inspiring, even though the gleaming white castle was actually built in the last century. The original had unfortunately not survived the changing times here in Japan, but that's another story. And I could still feel all the big history here, the spirit of the samurai seems to have survived in Aizu until today, as it shows in many places in the city and the surrounding area.

Many visitors often rush through the castle complex, and only run quickly up to the top, before it then goes down again, out and on. I myself have walked around the castle several times, taking advantage of the entire area of the complex. Sometimes I climb the outer walls and look at the castle from a short distance. And surely I always take new photos.

The castle park is also perfect for a small picnic, especially during the week, when not so many visitors come. But even today it was not so crowded, so I always managed to banish all the people from my photos and just let the grounds speak for themselves. You might almost think we were alone. But it was in no way like that, not with this great weather.

Now in September, autumn has also arrived here in Japan, but today it showed itself from its very best side. Actually it could clearly compete with summer. Blue sky as far as the eye could see and almost 30 degrees, just wonderful. And slowly the leaves begin to change color, but this spectacle will still have to wait a little.

But it was a prefect timing for some great photos, and I always find new perspectives from which I can press the camera shutter. Green, blue and white play and harmonize wonderfully with each other, and the cherry trees offer a perfect foreground not only during the cherry blossom season, but also at this time of year.

But saying goodbye today was inevitable, even though we then drove an extra loop around the castle. Also from the outside, Tsuruga-jo exudes its great charm and makes me realize that I probably have not been here the last time.

I think I've already paid my respects here on five visits and so far I've been inside twice, but this time the walk through the castle park was enough for us. And to be honest, the castle looks much better from the outside.

Before we then went back, we first took care of ourselves and went to a rather rustic restaurant. They offered the usual specialties that are served on such occasions here in the Aizu region, and we decided to go for Aizu Ramen and Katsu-don. Ramen is always great, and Aizu-style fried pork and cabbage on rice is also a nice treat. Topped off with miso soup, konyaku balls, and tea galore, there was no reason for us to complain.

The decoration of the restaurant included various pictures and posters. One of them was showing the last daimyo from the Matsudaira clan that had ruled this region in the past. There was also a picture of the original castle hanging on the wall, proving that the complex had been rebuilt quite faithfully.

But posters of actors who had starred in TV series about the samurai period also added a bit of atmosphere to this location. Whether real or acted out, there is simply no getting around the samurai theme in Aizu. And why should you leave it out?

The last leg of our journey led us through Yan-aizu, a small town on the Tagami River, which immediately impressed me with its very special scenery. Several bridges cross the river here and provide for a quite great background, which immediately invited us to a longer stopover.

In Yan-aizu there are also some hot spring baths and the Enzoji temple, which is located directly on the rocks above the river. But since we still had some way to go, we've now added the temple to the long list of places we want to visit and check out more thoroughly.

But the bridges were also already a nice eye-catcher, and further up the river there should be more of them. That will also have to wait a bit, but I think we'll come by here again.

Before we really headed into the mountains, I took one last look over the yellow rice fields of the Aizu plain. Once again, it was a very pleasant visit here and we would have liked to stay a little longer. But we will definitely come back, probably sooner than we can imagine now. And I wouldn't mind that at all.

And when we arrived home, the sky was lighting up and showing us the right way on our last kilometers. Even if I repeat myself, today the weather was just gorgeous, I can't believe that it was raining most of the day yesterday and was so hazy all the time. But such variety is the salt in the soup of life. Sometimes it may be a little cold, but if you're not careful, you'll burn your tongue when going for another serving.

I'll share more pictures und impression of our little trip in more detail soon. Tokyo and Aizu were surely worth a visit again and I can't wait to visit again some day.

Arigatou Gozaimashita!

[//]:# (!pinmapple 37.530937 lat 139.723392 long Arigatou Aizu - A great day to end our little journey d3scr)