- The best things to do in Fukushima Prefecture.
I'm Chris, this is Topher,
we are the Internet's number one human
and stuffed panda traveling duo.
And this video is part of our series
on Fukushima Prefecture and Japan as a whole.
If you wanna see more videos on Fukushima or Japan,
you'll find links in the description below
to our whole playlist.
But in this video we're gonna be sharing with you
some of the best things to do in Fukushima,
and some of the hidden gems that maybe not a lot of people
know about, that you can check out
that are slightly off the beaten path, as well.
In this video we'll be hitting up things to do
mostly in Fukushima's mountain and central region.
We're gonna start in a historic village of Ouchi-juku.
We'll visit one of Fukushima's most iconic castles.
We'll head over to the Mount Bandai region,
famous for outdoor activities.
Then over to Fukushima City for strawberry picking
and strolling through an onsen town,
and we'll end in Koriyama City to check out an amazing view
at Fukushima's tallest building.
And the first place we're gonna talk about
is right here, it's Ouchi-juku.
This town, it's in the Aizu region of Fukushima,
so it's in the mountains, as you can tell,
it looks pretty snowy and cold here.
We're here in February,
and they just finished their winter festival,
where they had snow sculptures.
But the first thing you wanna do
when you come to Ouchi-juku is you wanna check out
the Viewpoint Observatory.
It's on that mountain hill right back there,
and from there you can get a great view of the town
and see the 48 preserved houses that are here.
All of them have thatched roofs,
and they continue to keep them up today,
just like they were built in the Edo period
back in the 1600s.
The closest train station to Ouchi-juku
is the Yunokami Onsen Train Station.
We're gonna get there in just a second, but first let's stop
by the Ashinomaki Onsen Train Station
so you can meet their very special stationmaster.
One of the things to do in Fukushima Prefecture
is to visit Labuchan,
he is the stationmaster of the Ashinomaki-Onsen Station.
And by the way, the whole station's super cute,
because the station, it's got cats everywhere.
But I do wanna point out
that if you're coming to visit Labuchan,
make sure you're here one of the days he works,
and he only works from 9:00 to 4:00 p.m.
He's got two days a week that he's off,
and those two days a week,
then his chief engineer's working.
But when he does work,
he's gotta check everything out in the train station.
This is where they change the tracks,
and this cat is the cutest cat ever.
You have to come and you have to meet him.
Though, I will mention, and we're just kind of patrolling
with him as he's patrolling the station.
I have to mention that they typically don't allow
photos and videos, so Labuchan gave me special permission
to come down here and film him
on the rest of his patrol off the tracks.
This is the second-generation cat stationmaster.
And actually the reason they don't allow photos
of it anymore is people took too many flash photos
of the previous stationmaster and actually damaged his eyes.
So that's why they have a no-photo policy.
So Labuchan always takes the same morning patrol
and he always comes over here,
right about lunch time to eat the cat grass
'cause it's particularly good for his belly.
After about a 20-minute patrol,
Labuchan is running to head back in the station.
It's probably a little cold out here.
There's another cat that works this station,
his name is Peach.
He's the chief engineer.
He's resting right now.
But he's got a really great hat.
That's my color.
If you happen to be passing through this train station
when cats aren't working,
well, you can still admire the gift shop,
they've got lots of really unique items,
including Labuchan Saake.
Another train station that's worth a visit and the linger
is the Yunokami Onsen Station.
This is the train station you would go to
if you were taking the bus to Ouchi-juku.
What's really interesting about this train station
is the thatched roof, and I wanna show you inside.
Inside the train station,
just like the old houses in Ouchi-juku,
but in particular it's got this fireplace right here
that you can sit by and warm up,
and the train station staff actually tends to this fire
to keep it warm all the time.
I've never been in a train station
that has a fireplace in it.
This is pretty cool.
But what's really cool is what's outside.
But one of the coolest things about this train station
are not the trains, they're pretty cool,
but it's the foot bath right here.
This is a free foot bath right next to the train station
and we've been walking around in the snow all day today,
so I think my feet could really use a relaxing plunge now.
By the way, this are size 14 Nike boots,
in case you're wondering.
Big feet means big shoes,
but my feet are sore and could definitely use
some rejuvenation here.
You know this place is famous for its hot spring water.
So I'm looking forward to doing this,
but I gotta roll up my...
Gotta roll up my pants there and dip my feet in here.
You should do the same when you come because,
oh, this is so nice.
This is so nice on a cold day,
which it is today, feet are sore, and in this water,
it's not just like a standard bottom,
but it's actually got these little stones in it
so you can kinda massage your feet on this.
Oh, but the water's hot,
maybe get in kinda slowly 'cause it's hot.
And if you're here like Monday about noontime like we are,
you might have the whole place all to yourself.
By they way, when I said there were foot baths
all over Fukushima Prefecture, I really wasn't lying.
Now I'm not at a foot path in a train station,
now I'm at a foot bath
in front of a Gyoza restaurant, Hirui.
We just had some gyoza in here
and I noticed there was this foot bath
and figured I should try it.
So I'm really serious when I said
there's foot baths all over.
And so I'd highly encourage you
when you come to Fukushima Prefecture,
just carry a towel with you,
particularly if you're around an Onsen town,
'cause you never know when you might just see a foot bath
and be like, ah, I should use that, if only I had a towel.
This is the most iconic castle in Fukushima Prefecture.
It's known by two names,
the Aizu-Wakamatsu Castle or Tsuru-ga-jo.
That's how they often refer to it locally here.
But what's special about this castle,
this castle is the only castle in Japan
that has red roof tiles.
And I know they look kind of dark right now,
It's because it's wet and it's snowing.
If the sun shines on it, they're really red.
Why are tiles red?
Because they have iron in them
and it's much better for the snow.
Black tiles, they crack in the snow,
and so that's why this castle is red.
And by the way, we're here in February
and you can see it's snowing,
and look, the tiles, they aren't cracked.
When local couples visit this castle,
they like to look for heart-shaped stones
'cause I think it means their love is gonna last forever.
And there you go, there's a heart-shaped stone.
One of the best things to do here
is definitely come inside the castle tower.
The first few floors you can learn all about the history
of the castle.
It's been here with a history to the year like 1300.
It's been rebuilt a few times.
This castle actually isn't that old currently.
We're gonna see a tea house,
which is one of the original buildings here,
but the top floor is why you wanna come up
to this castle tower because it has a birds-eye view
of all of Aizu-Wakamatsu City,
which is a city that's kinda known
as the home of the Samurai.
So lots of Samurai culture in this city.
And the other great part about coming up here
is you can get up close and personal to the red roof tiles
and you can really see that they're red from up here.
In the first floor of the castle, as you enter and exit,
has a pretty good gift shop.
Lots of merchandise here from the Aizu region.
But the coolest thing in the gift shop
is definitely the special Coca-Cola Aizu bottle design,
with the castle right on it.
So once you're done exploring the castle,
make sure to stop by the tea house
where you can get some matcha tea
and you can get some Japanese desserts.
This tea house dates back about 400 years,
though it's actually been recently remodeled.
It's a small little tea house, but it's cute,
it's historic, and the matcha tea,
it's not served in like a mug or things like that.
Come over here and take a look at this,
it's actually served in a bowl.
This green matcha tea, and the sweets right here,
they're served with that little, little priest
that you're gonna see all over this region.
Make sure to stop by here and have this traditional feel.
It's really nice on a snowy day.
If you're looking to do some shopping or cafe hopping
in Aizu-Wakamatsu, head to Nanukamachi Street,
or Nanokamachi-dori.
It's right near Nanukamachi Station,
which is about four blocks down that way,
but there's a lot of quaint buildings here,
old buildings, cafes, restaurants,
and of course we've got right here a sweet shop.
Mm.
One of the coolest shops on this street,
we were just stumbling around and looking at the shops,
is this shop, it's the candle shop, Hoshiban e-rousoku.
This shop has been here since 1772 selling painted candles.
And we've seen a lot of painted candles in this region,
but these are some of the most amazing painted candles.
They've got small painted candles
and they've also got really big painted candles up here.
This shop, the owner of it,
is the ninth generation owner of this shop,
and his wife paints all of the candles in the shop,
10 to 20 a day.
And if you want to paint a candle yourself,
well, they've got blank candles right here
and they've got paint and things like that
that you can use.
You can come in from 9:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m.,
paint a candle for just about 1800 yen.
Pretty fun thing to do.
If you like outdoor and nature activities,
one of the best places for that is the Mt. Bandai Region.
Mt. Bandai, it's a very large dormant volcano,
but in 1888 it erupted and created a lot of different lakes.
If you're here in the winter,
this is a great area for skiing and snowboarding,
but there's a lot more thing to do and see
than just skiing and snowboarding,
and today we're gonna go see some splashing ice
at Japan's fourth largest lake, Lake Inawashiro.
And the splashing ice is just down this way.
Now if you wanna come and see the splashing ice,
it's about a one-kilometer walk from the parking lot,
so make sure you bring some good boots.
The snow is actually really low this year,
other years it's a lot thicker.
But it's a really neat, beautiful white walk.
I'll see you there.
So we've made it to the splashing ice.
I am walking very, very slowly, like I'm tip-toeing,
'cause this is very slippery right here.
But this ice, it's really amazing.
If you come here in the winter,
it's a bit of a trek to come here,
but it's totally worth it.
I've never seen anything like this before.
The water splashes up on these plants that are here
and as it splashes on the plants,
it freezes, and then more splashes on it
and then more of it freezes,
and it gets bigger and bigger and bigger.
It's like a mother nature ice sculpture.
I've always seen these things like the ice palaces
that people build, but I think this is even cooler
because mother nature built this here on this lake.
Now, the other thing that's here in the winter is swans.
Swans migrate to this lake.
There's a beach just over that way called Swan Beach.
We actually saw a couple of swans as we were driving here.
Now, if you're not coming here in the winter,
what's there to do on this lake in the summer?
You can take boats out in the lake,
you can go fishing out on the lake,
and this hiking trail that we hiked on,
it's great for hiking, as well.
Some great hiking in Fukushima Prefecture
is here in this Bandai region.
This one's pretty good if you like flat land,
obviously there's mountain trails you can take, too.
I personally like the flat land.
Another cool winter activity to do in the Urabandai region
is to go snowshoeing.
I've got snowshoes on right here that you could have, too.
By the way snowshoes right here,
take a look at how deep this snow is,
but we're not here just to walk around in the snow,
and you don't have to be either on Lake Sohara.
It freezes and so you can actually go snowshoeing
on a frozen lake.
And we're actually on a like guided snowshoeing expedition,
which is even cooler.
It makes me know if I were to go snowshoeing
into the wrong place,
I wouldn't end up falling into the lake.
Now, the real reason that there are snowshoes,
are not really to walk on frozen lakes,
but they are to walk on this fresh powdery snow,
and this snow pack is really quite deep,
but if I didn't have these snowshoes on,
I would sink in completely.
And I think this is pretty cool too,
to just walk in this fresh powder.
It is quite a leg workout, I must say.
Walking around here kinda makes me wanna lie down
and make a snow angel,
but I think I would go down about six feet
and never be heard from again.
One of the interesting things about this snow,
it's really dry, and so if it gets on your clothes
even if you're not wearing snow clothes,
you just wipe it off and it doesn't actually make it wet.
They say to actually make snowmen with this snow
they have to add water to it because otherwise
it doesn't compact appropriately to make a snowman.
So that's pretty nice.
If this was regular snow from California,
my pants would be absolutely soaked.
We're here in February,
and I understand this lake just froze over this year,
but what's the typical season that visitors
can do this snowshoeing on the frozen lake?
- Middle January through early March
will be the best season to enjoy snowshoeing on the lake.
- Yeah. - Yeah.
- That way you can walk on water yourself.
But if people just wanna snowshoe around,
how long is that season here?
If they don't wanna walk on actual lake?
- It's end of December through middle of March.
- Good four months.
- Yes, yes, very long winter we have.
- But it's not Winter all year,
so when this lake isn't frozen,
what do people do on this lake?
- Warmer season, people enjoy canoeing,
kayaking on the lake, and there's a lot of trails,
like hiking trails or trekking trails in this area,
so we introduce how to spend a cool summer in this highland.
- Yeah, I think this would be a pretty cool place to stay,
just speaking of places to stay,
right in the middle this awesome natural environment.
So if you can't make all the way up in to the mountains
in Fukushima Prefecture, there's neat onsen Town
just 20 minutes outside of Fukushima City,
outside the Fukushima Station,
Iizaka Onsen Town is the name of it,
and this town is famous for having nine public baths.
This is one of the public baths,
admission to this one is 200 yen,
the most expensive is 300 yen,
and if you need a towel and soap and a bathing set,
that'll cost you 300 yen
that you can pick up at many of this baths.
This town has been an onsen town for over 1,000 years
and it's famous for the water being very hot.
Each one of this public baths has a sign in front of it
to tell you a little bit about the particular water
in that bath.
So this town, in addition to the public baths,
has three free foot baths,
and you'll see them on the signs as Ashi Yu-Teyu,
foot bath and hand bath, these are pretty special.
We've done a few foot baths across Fukushima Prefecture
on this trip, but this one's really quite big.
It has a seated bath here that you can sit and enjoy.
It also has a standing bath right here
that you could stand in, and the water,
I'm gonna show you here on this sign,
they've got four different sections
and so they actually tell you the water temperature
in the four different sections of the bath.
A really popular activity in Fukushima Prefecture
is fruit picking.
Fukushima Prefecture being known as the kingdom of fruits
is famous for fruits.
Apples, peaches, cherries, grapes,
today we are picking strawberries.
Many of these farms offer all-you-can-pick-and-eat specials
for about an hour.
In this season that we're here,
February, strawberry's in season,
so this is what we are picking, but when you come,
you can take a look at what is in season when you are here.
But what's really great about this strawberry picking farm
that we're at and these strawberries is,
because this is in a green house,
you actually don't have to wash the things,
and actually most of the farms in Fukushima,
even if they're not in greenhouses,
they'll tell you like the apples,
you can just pick and eat them,
because they generally don't use pesticides that are here.
This is a special variety of strawberries called Tochiotome,
and it's really neat
to just be able to pick fruit and eat it.
I've been to like fruit picking where you just pick fruit,
and you put it in a basket, and you'll take it home,
and you wash it, but I think it's really special
to just pick off the vine and eat
like people did in the old days.
Mm.
And all the fruit we've had here has been in season,
has been really delicious,
so I'd encourage you in your season
to pick up some delicious fruit
and get some fruit picking.
Most importantly, though, fruit eating.
Visit the tallest planetarium in the world,
located in the Big-I building in Koriyama, Japan.
This is the tallest building in Koriyama, Japan,
and it's the Guinness Book Of World Records
certified tallest planetarium.
Up here is a show all about the stars,
but what's also really amazing about this place
is there's an amazing observatory just outside of it
that I wanna go and show you right now.
The planetarium's in this dome,
you can actually see it from the outside of the building
from a long, long way away.
It's a pretty defining characteristic of the building.
So the 22nd floor, it's part of the space park
in this building, and the 22nd floor is free to go in
and it's free to see really quite an amazing view.
If you just take a look outside this window,
you can see the JR Koriyama Station,
this where the Shinkansen comes in,
so this building is actually just right outside the exit
from the station.
Makes it really convenient to stop here on your way north
of Japan to Sendai or if you're going back to Tokyo
at the end of your trip,
you can come here and get a really great birds-eye view
of the entire Koriyama City.
So even if you don't wanna go to the planetarium,
definitely come here to check out the view of Koriyama City.
And there's one more thing I wanna show you
that's really neat in the back,
particularly if you're a railroad geek.
This is a diorama of Koriyama throughout the different ages
showing you what the town looked like,
and it's a scale model train,
and the trains in here actually move,
provided you're here on certain days when they are moving,
public holidays and today is a Japanese public holiday,
and the train, it goes around
and then it stops at the train station.
And it's so detailed,
it's even got some models smoke coming out of it.
If you're a train station geek, you'll love this.
This is the diorama of modern day Koriyama
and you can see the building right there
with the planetarium up on top.
It's truly amazing how detailed this diorama is,
I don't think I've ever seen as detailed of a diorama
as this one.
That was the model Shinkansen, this is the real Shinkansen.
These trains are amazingly long.
If you've never had the opportunity to ride the Shinkansen,
the Japanese bullet train,
when you are in Fukushima Prefecture,
it's a great way to get in and out.
And the last thing to do
is watch more Yellow Productions videos.
I've got a whole bunch more videos on Fukushima,
including things to know and things to eat.
You can click either of these videos to watch them,
or find links in the description below.
As usual, I won't say goodbye,
because I'll see you in the next video.