This is a picture (not real good quality) of one of the Buddha's outside the Modern Shrine in the first place we visited!

 

 This is a picture of the room that I stayed in at my brother's house in Aizu.  It had a beautiful view of a Japanese Garden below.

 

 This is a picture of the 10 meter high Buddha.  As you can see there are many other smaller statues surrounding this awesome carving.  It was quite a sight!

 

 This is a picture of the Castle in Aizu. 

 
 

 This is a picture of the O-Yakuen Herbal Gardens located about 10 feet from my brother's house in Aizu.  Very beautiful!

 
  This is a very famous symbol of Aizu.  It is called the Aka-Beko or Red Cow.

 
 

 Here is a picture of some of the people that I met while in Aizu.  These are friends of my brothers, and professors at the local University.  I took this picture while we were waiting for our Soba to be prepared.

 
 This is a picture of the Endless stair shrine.  This was the last Torri that we entered into that was at the base of the stairs.  I am sitting in a tradition Zazen posture.

 
 This is a picture of the stairs that me and my brother climbed in Aizu.

 
 Here is another picture of the Endless stairs.  If you look closely on the left is a small statue.

 
 This is the miny-shrine that we found on our way up the Endless Stairs.

 
 This is the longest flight of stairs that me and my brother found on our way up to the shrine.  If you look where the blue arrow is pointing you can see me.  I am standing about in the middle of the flight of stairs holding a broom in my hand.

 
 I stepped into the shrine to see what I could see.  Here is a picture of me and what I found.  As you can tell by my sweat it was a rigorous climb.

 
 This is one of the statues we found on our climb up the mountain in Aizu.

 
This is a picture of the courtyard at the castle in Aizu.

 
Here is a side shot of the bridge leading over the moat to Tsuruga-jo Castle. 

 
Here is a front view of the bridge and just the top of the castle.

 
Torii inside the courtyard of Tsuruga-jo Castle.  If you were to go under them you would be led to a small shrine.

 
Here is a picture of one of the beautiful gardens inside the castle. This one was close to the Tea Ceremony area.

 

 

 

 
Here are some of my pictures of the Tsuruga-jo Castle.

 
Another beautiful garden, but this one was in the Bukeyashiki.  The small garden outside of the Principal Retainer's guestroom.

 
This is yet, another small shrine located in the Bukeyashiki.

 
The gateway into the Principal Retainer's guestroom area.

 
A picture of the buildings at the Bukeyashiki.

 
Could it be SEI-CHAN?!  This is a picture of me, Sei-Chan, and Mi-Chan.   They were a few of people I got to meet and hang out with while in Aizu.  They were awesome kids to play with!  Their family, the Takahashi's were a very kind and lovnig family.

 
This is a picture of the rice mill at the Bukeyashiki.

 
This was one of the important Japanese cultural artifacts (located in the Bukeyashiki).

 
A Buddha statue in the Samurai Residence.

 
Here is a picture of some more friends of my brothers.  These two have been in Japan for over 40 years.

 

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