SW 2023 D2 - Around Aizuwakamatsu

Route: Around Aizuwakamatsu
Bicycle: 41 km

Average speed: 13.3 km/h
Total ascent: 341 m
Riding time: 3:03 h
Weather: Sunny, humid and definitely too hot for me, 31C

In principle I wanted to ride up to Ouchi Juku, an old post town on the way from Aizuwakamatsu to Edo, but it was way too hot for me. I had incorporated two other (minor) sightseeing spots into the  tour today... and at least I managed to visit those. 

The first stop of the day was a shrine I had found on google maps that looked interesting, and was on the way to Ouchi Juku... and more importantly today, in an area with old, tall, shade-providing trees. 

And right today there was a very small temple festival ongoing. With elderly men dancing, singing and playing the flute, and a very young boy (the grandson of the flute player) playing the drum with great enthusiasm, experience and energy. 

The show of sake under the 交通安全 (Road safety) sign was a bit surprising. But I guess also sake needs to be transported safely. I stayed at this shrine and its surrounding small forrest for quite some time, before going for a soba lunch in a very small, very village, restaurant, which crucially had air conditioning. By this time I had decided to give up on Ouchi juku (still too hot and now also too late) and was actually contemplating to return directly to Aizuwakamatsu... but then continued to the second attraction of the day. A temple up on a hill overlooking the fertile plains around Aizu Wakamatsu. 

Plains knowns for their fruit cultivations. On the way to the temple I passed a fruit processing plant that also sold directly to customers (quite typical in Japan) and got a peach. I had left it to the saleslady to select the right peach for me. She choose a rather hard one (hard like an apple), which however was very tasty. While I was standing outside eating it, an other employee (or maybe the owner) came, and gave me an other huge peach that had some small damage (so probably they couldn't sell it) that was softer and more juicy... but I found the harder one more delicous. 

The temple did remind me a bit of Kiyomizudera in Kyoto... only that this one only gets a few visitors a day, has a much nicer view and even a small cave behind the temple. 

Cycling back to Aizu Wakamatsu I could see that it was raining in the distance and it seems that in Wakamatsu itself it had rained very heavily... but I only got the rainbow: