Autum

These pics are from my garden.

(Japanese　maple　trees)

ウチの庭のもみじたちです。

Taimatsu Akashi Pics! 松明あかしの写真！！

It was rainy day...so, we were worried if they still would be held the festival.

At the night, it was still drizzling and a bit chilly.

But no worries!!
We had NABE( a hot pot cooked at the table) at my friend's friend's house where was very close to the festival place.
NABE warmed us , then we went to see the fires!
The fire warmed us again!

I don't know why but I won't be tired to see the fire flames.

It has some mysterious.

朝から雨で、心配しましたが、松明あかし！行ってきました。
友達の友達とは言え、初対面の家で、

ずうずうしくも鍋をご馳走になり、
お腹を満たし、体を温め、
いざ！火祭りへ！
ちょっと小雨が降ってましたが、十分楽しむことができました。
火って、不思議。

炎がゆらゆら揺れるの見るのは、飽きないものです。

Then, do you know what did we do after?
Yes! Of course!

BEER!!

もちろん、その後はビールで、また温まる。

This is a extra. Can you see those cute boys ?

Taimatsu Akashi 松明あかし

This weekend , we have a fire festival in Sukagawa where is the next town to Koriyama.

This is the 3rd biggest fire festival in Japan, and it is a traditional and historic festival.

150 young people will carry out big torches which have 10 meters in length and 3 tons of weight, and parade in the town

At the night, they set big torches on fire!!
so.... you cannot miss it!

If you wanna know about the history , please look out the following.

I translated this.

今度の土曜日、11月11日は日本三大火祭りの一つ

「松明あかし」が

須賀川で行われます。

昼間は松明・武者行列、夜には何本もの巨大な松明にも火がともされ、迫力があります。

400年もの歴史ある行事です。

ではでは、みんなで行ってみよう!!

（詳しくはこちら）

********************************************************************************************

Taimatsu Akashi

(The Torch Festival,2nd Saturday in November)

　　In the middle Ages, the Sukagawa Castle was burned by hostile troops. Taimatsu Akashi originates from this and is regarded as one of the three largest fire festivals in Japan. During the day of the festival, large torches,samurai and princess parades are observed and at night large torches are set a light as a reminder of the burning of the Sukagawa Castle.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

416 years ago, in June of 1589.　Masamune Date overthrew the lord of the Aizu Kurokawa castle, Ashina. Encouraged by the success, Masamune planned to attack the Sukagawa castle, and sent secret messengers to other generals.

At the time, the lord of the Suakagawa Castle was the dowager of Moriyoshi Nikaido, Daijyoin. She was Masamune’s aunt. She was a dauntless lady lord. The lord of the Aizu Kurokawa castle, Ashina had a son with her, Moritaka. He was the previous lord. Moritaka had a son, Yoshihiro and he became the present lord. Daijyoin couldn’t surrender to Masamune because he killed her family.

The Nikaido family and the followers who realized Masamune’s plan, lighted their torches, gathered on the east hill and strengthened their determination to defend the castle. That was the night of October 10th.

October 26th, in the gray of the morning, Masamune lead the vast force, built the headquarters on the north side of the Shakado River, which flows from west to east in Sukagawa. Finally, the battle was started and they fought across the river.

The battle places were Daikokuseki-guchi and Amako-guchi. The battles started at 8:00pm.
Even though Masamune’s army was much stronger than Sukagawa’s, the Sukawaga force fought very well. They fought wholeheartedly, but they struggled to their death.
Although Masamune’s force kept sending soldiers, the bloody fight continued. At times, it looked as though Sukagawa might win.

At the Amako-guchi, Sukagawa force won the 1st fight, but Masamune’s back-up soldiers continued to come with great force.

At the same time, one of the follower who suggested that Nikaido be reconcile with Masamune. However, he betrayed Nikaido and set the Nagaroku temple on fire. It was upwind of the castle, so the flame spread, eventually the whole town became a see of flames.

The castle, the Nikaido family, and followers were surrounded by the flames.

The Nikaido and Sukagawa castle, which had held power as a head of the Tohoku South area for 400 years, fall down.

This festival is performed to honor the people killed in action

Goshiki-Numa 五色沼

　I went to the Goshiki-Numa with my friends last friday.
Goshiki-Numa is on the back side of Mt.Bandai in Fukushima.
Many friends say that the Goshiki-Numa is the most beatiful place in Fukushima.
You can enjoy various sceneries by the season.
Now, in autumn, you can see beatutiful mountains because leaves change to red or yeallow.

　Goshiki-numa is a highly recomended place. but you should be careful, if it's a weekend , a national holiday or the perfect day to go for everyone, there must be very busy busy...

you should get there earlier.

The following , I translated from a guid book.

If you read Japanese, this web site will help you.

文化の日、五色沼（福島県裏磐梯）に行ってきました。
五色沼が福島県で一番好きという外国人が、本当に多いです。
日本人の私は、これまで人生で２回ぐらいしか行った事がなかったのですが、
久しぶりに行ってみました。
五色沼周辺は紅葉が終わりかけでしたが、
それでも真っ赤に染まったきれいなもみじを見ることができました。
行った事がない方は、是非是非！
おすすめの場所ですよ。
季節ごとにそれぞれ違った表情がみることができます。
裏磐梯周辺の情報はこちらもどうぞ

***************************************************************************
Goshik-Numa ("Numa" means a pond)
Goshiki numa is the most famous group of ponds which was made by the Mt. Bandai eruption in 1888. You can walk on the trail, and enjoy the colorful water in the grove.
The trail is about 4km and has a gentle slope. You can enjoy easy walking for about a hour.

“Bishamon- Numa”

Some big ponds have names. Bishamon numa is the biggest pond of Goshiki-numa. On a beautiful day, you can see blue-white water. The beautiful color comes from the floating milky sediments of calcium sulfate and the water coming in is making the glassy materials by chemical changes. Depending of the weather, you can see the different colors; red, blue, green, cobalt blue, emerald green…. That’s why we call it “ Goshiki- numa” which means “5 colored pond”


“Midoro-Numa”
Midoro-numa has the most dynamic colors. You can see the many different shades depending on the weather or the season. It has a complex color because of the natural water color, algae, and the sediments which contain a lot of iron.

“Benten-Numa”
In a forest, there are many reeds beside the pond. The water is bright blue. The trees can be green or red depending on season. You can see many good color combinations here. This pond and Ruri-Numa are superficially connecting with a small stream, but all ponds are connecting with water veins underground.





“Ruri-Numa”

Here is the best place for photos. You can see the crater of Mt. Bandai and the water is very clear. but I know this picture dosen't look good...

“Ao-Numa”
This pond is very small and the color is dark blue. Just after the eruption, there was only lava, soil and rocks. One man tried to bring the green places back. He spent a lot of his own money and kept planting Japanese red pine trees around there. His name was Genmu Endo. He spent his whole life doing it. His grave is at the back of this pond.

Halloween Party Pics!!

Here is the Halloween's pics!

hehehe...

Everyone did good job, hey?

He was the winner of the costume competition .

Do you know who he is?

yeah, EBISU SAMA.

Well done! Daniel!

夕べのハロウィーンパーティーの写真でーす。

最後の写真のダニエルは、コスチュームコンテストのチャンピオンでした。

おめでとーー！！

a late Halloween party!

Tomorrow night, 3rd of November, we have a big halloween party at a nigth club in Koriyama.

This is one of "PULL " party which Bladley is organizing every month.
(Details are here)

Acutully, I've never been to this halloween party.
Everyone says " that is the biggest halloween party in Koriyama"

Do you wanna know who I will be ??
Please come the party and check it!

1st day

hello.
ok.I'll start a new blog from today.
I think i will tell you mainly about Fukushima, like beautiful places, great events, foods...
becase I'm living here, I love here.

I hope you can enjoy them :)

chiao

日本語でも書こうかな。
がんばって、今日から新しいブログはじめるぞ！
他にもブログがあって、更新が滞るかもしれないけど・・・
まあ、まずはやってみよう！

ここでは、主に地元のことを書いていこうと思います。

よろしくです。