Hey, there is the Fukushima City Art Museum!  A very famous art exhibit came to town.  The Dutch Masters!

Do you recognize this painting?

And that one on the right?   Isn’t she beautiful.

Johannes Vermeer painted it.

 I wonder if these girls knew that their faces would be seen by us.  I wonder what they were thinking.

Lots of fun stuff to buy in the gift shop!

Girls had music lessons long, long ago….just like today.

Do you think she is bored?  Sleepy?  Daydreaming?

Pamphlets for the next exhibit…which is now the current exhibit. You have until July third to see “Rebirth of the Wolf.”

Japan has lots of art museums to choose from!

Hmmmmm…..where should I go next………?

When we were about to leave Aizu-Wakamatsu City, my husband said he had a surprise for me.  After all, it was my birthday! And Mother’s Day!   So what could it be?

A ride on the Fruitea Train!

It’s two special cars added on to the regular train to Koriyama City.  And it’s first class all the way, baby!

It’s called FruitTea because Fukushima Prefecture is famous for its fruit, and this first class car serves delicious fruit cake!

Each passenger was served two fruit laden pieces of cake, plus coffee and juice.  Oh, and a cookie.  I know, you’re wondering:  Where’s the tea…?

The tea was in this car, which was adjoined to our car.  It’s self service drinks.

We could watch the train go down the tracks. Since it was Mother’s Day, our Fruitea car was full of happy wives, doting husbands and train-crazy sons.  (Yes, pretty much all the children were boys!)

What fun!  Here is a photo of the regular part of the train.  I snapped it as we were leaving.

That’s the Ban-etsu Line, from Koriyama City to Aizu-Wakamatsu City.  Try it.  You might like it!

This is a box of cookies with famous people from Aizu-Wakamatsu on it.

From left:  Noguchi Hideyo, a famous scientist

Next:  Gamo Ujisato, a samurai

Next:  Niijima Yae, a fearless female warrior

On far right:  Byakkotai, a group of boys who died by their own hands during a war

Me with a bust of Noguchi Hideyo, at his former doctor’s office

This is Noguchi’s former doctor’s office. It is now a charming cafe.  A great place to relax!

When we were in Aizu-Wakamatsu City, we visited this beautiful and slightly zany temple.  It was constructed in 1796.

Let’s go inside, shall we?

Up..up…up…

At the top…and down…down…down…

This temple was truly fascinating.

Like something out of a book…..

And afterwards, how about some refreshing soba ice cream?  Mmm….Delish!

You can see the famous Japanese cartoon character Sazae San visit Sazae-do Temple here.

Sazae is a word for a type of shell.  Sazae San and Sazae-do both derive their names this word.