After a sumptuous breakfast, my aunt and cousin, Masako took us to Hiraizumi. From 1089 to 1189, three generations of the Fujiwara family headed by Kiyohira Fujiwara, created a political and cultural center in Hiraizumi. He wanted to create a "paradise of Earth." Hiraizumi was certainly a strong attempt.
Here are the photos:
The morning began with a near disaster. Our PC laptop with the Vista operating system went haywire. It somehow rewired itself to its original set up somehow losing all our inputed information including all the photos we had uploaded on it and didn't have time to back up. We were horrfied but my brother managed to reset it again and saved our day!
Hiraizumi is an absolutely heavenly place.
I can see why wedding couples like to have their wedding photos taken here.
The lake area was just gorgeous and my mother and aunt enjoyed the walk. It's incredible how different the temperatures are between Tokyo and Sendai which is farther north. It was sweltering in Tokyo. We need jackets in Sendai.
My aunt says the hagi flower is very popular there and they have hagi festivals at this time of year.
The museum was very interesting. We couldn't resist having our photo taken in front of a statue of the poet, Bassho.
Ahem... These are ancient toilet papers, OK... so they're sticks. Not exactly soft but I guess they did the trick.
Shrine: I'm sorry I can't remember which one. I'll have to fill this out when I'm more awake.
Another shrine
This is the grave of the famous warrior, Benkei. A pine tree was planted at this site because the pine is unchanging even in winter. Benkei was also unchanging in his loyalty to his Lord Yoshitsune. Legend goes that he died still standing while protecting his lord even though a slew of arrows had covered his body.
We cajoled Art and Dennis to pose as Benkei and Lord Yoshitsune.
Here is my wonderful master chef uncle with one of his favorite fans.
