Samurai Aizu: The Red-Roofed Castle, the Byakkotai Hill & a Cultural-Property Ryokan — 2 Days

The symbol of Aizu is its castle, seat of the Matsudaira lords and the great holdout of the 1868 Boshin War, when it withstood a month-long siege before the domain surrendered. The keep was dismantled in 1874 and rebuilt in concrete in 1965, but in 2011 its roof was restored to the rare red tile of the original — the only red-roofed castle keep in Japan. Inside is a well-told history museum on the Aizu domain and the war; the top floor opens to a view across the basin to the mountains. The surrounding park, with its moat, stone ramparts and the Rinkaku teahouse, is one of Tohoku's finest cherry sites in late April.

Keep and museum open daily roughly 08:30-17:00 (last entry 16:30); around ¥520 adult, or ¥730 with the Rinkaku teahouse (approx., 2026). About 15 minutes by bus or 20 by bike from JR Aizu-Wakamatsu Station. Allow about 90 minutes. The Boshin War history here includes mass casualties — treated as memorial, not spectacle.

A wooded hill on the northeast edge of the town, Iimoriyama is the most solemn place in Aizu. Here, during the 1868 siege, a unit of the Byakkotai — the 'White Tiger Corps' of sixteen- and seventeen-year-old samurai sons — looked back from the slope, saw smoke rising over the castle town, and believing Tsurugajo had fallen, nineteen of them took their own lives. The castle had not in fact fallen. Their graves stand in a quiet row on the hillside, with a viewpoint marking the spot they looked from, and memorials sent over the years from as far as Rome. It is climbed by a long stone staircase or a paid sloped escalator. A place to walk slowly and quietly.

Hillside open all day, free; the sloped escalator beside the stairs is around ¥250 (approx., 2026). About a 5-minute walk from Iimoriyama-shita bus stop, northeast of the centre. Allow about an hour including the climb. Please treat the graves as a memorial site.

Halfway down Iimoriyama stands one of the strangest buildings in Japan: the Sazaedo, a hexagonal wooden pagoda built in 1796, whose interior is a continuous double-helix ramp. Pilgrims once climbed a spiral up one way and descended a separate spiral down the other, so that you never meet anyone coming back — a one-way path past what were thirty-three Kannon images. Named for its resemblance to a turban-shell (sazae), it is a National Important Cultural Property and an early masterpiece of geometric architecture, predating Western descriptions of the double helix by over a century. It takes only minutes to walk through, but the gently dizzying climb is unforgettable.

Open daily roughly 08:15-sunset (to around 16:00 in winter); around ¥400 adult (approx., 2026). On the lower slope of Iimoriyama, a couple of minutes from the graves. Allow about 40 minutes. The ramp is steep and the boards can be slippery.

Back in the old centre, Mitsutaya has been making miso since 1834 and serves the dish Aizu is built around: dengaku, skewers of konjac, tofu, mochi, taro and fish grilled over a sunken charcoal hearth and brushed with the house miso. You sit at a counter around the irori, the cook turns the skewers in front of you, and you order set by set — chewy konjac, soft grilled tofu, sweet-savoury mochi. It is unfussy, deeply regional and the warmest possible lunch in a castle town that gets serious snow. The shop also sells its miso and pickles to take home.

Open for lunch roughly 10:00-17:00 (last order earlier; closed Wednesdays); a dengaku course runs around ¥1,200-2,000 (approx., 2026). On Nanokamachi/Omachi in the old centre, near the candle and lacquer shops. No reservation usually needed; busy at midday. Allow about an hour.

On the road toward Higashiyama, this open-air museum centres on a faithful 1975 reconstruction of the mansion of Saigo Tanomo, a senior Aizu retainer — thirty-eight rooms around courtyards and gardens, recreated from old plans after the originals were lost in the war. You walk through the formal reception rooms, the lord's bath, the kitchens with their great rice-cooker, and a tea house, with mannequin tableaux that include the family's tragic end during the siege. It is honest about being a reconstruction, but it conveys the scale and order of upper-samurai life better than any surviving fragment in the town. There are craft and archery experiences and a restaurant on the grounds.

Open daily roughly 09:00-17:00 (to 16:30 in winter, last entry 30 min before); around ¥850 adult (approx., 2026). On the way to Higashiyama Onsen, about 5 minutes by bus from the centre. It is a reconstruction, not an original Edo building. Allow about 75 minutes.

Higashiyama, a hot-spring valley ten minutes east of the centre, has soothed Aizu since the 8th century and was the lords' own spa. Its flagship is Mukaitaki, a rambling wooden inn dating in its present form to the 1870s, the first ryokan in the country to be listed as a national registered tangible cultural property. Rooms look onto a courtyard garden; the spring water flows into cypress and stone baths kept just as they were, including a small private 'Kissho-no-yu' once reserved for the domain. Kaiseki dinner leans on Aizu's mountain vegetables, river fish and local sake. Arrive in time for a bath before dinner; this is the centrepiece of the trip, not just a bed.

Rooms with dinner and breakfast run roughly ¥25,000-45,000+ per person (approx., 2026); reserve well ahead, especially in cherry and autumn season. About 10-15 minutes by bus from JR Aizu-Wakamatsu Station; the inn runs pickups by arrangement. Check in mid-afternoon. Allow the evening.

A short way from the centre, Oyakuen is the Edo-era villa garden of the Aizu lords, a designated national place of scenic beauty built around a heart-shaped pond with a central island and a teahouse where you can take matcha looking over the water. Its name, 'medicine garden', comes from the bed of around four hundred medicinal herbs the domain cultivated here from the 17th century, still tended today. It survived the Boshin War — used as a field hospital by the new government's army — and remains a calm, classical counterpoint to the previous day's battlefield history. Spring azaleas and autumn maples are the standout seasons.

Open daily roughly 08:30-17:00 (last entry 16:30); around ¥330 adult, matcha extra (approx., 2026). About 10 minutes by bus or bike east of the centre. A herbal-tea-making experience runs only on the 2nd Sunday of the month with advance booking. Allow about 75 minutes.

Running west from the old centre to Nanukamachi Station, this 700-metre street keeps the look of Aizu's Taisho and early-Showa heyday: black-plastered storehouses, brick and timber shopfronts and a retro romanticism the town has carefully preserved. It is the place to shop for what Aizu makes — lacquerware, the hand-painted candles the domain was famous for, Aizu cotton, and the akabeko, the bobbing red papier-mache cow that is the region's lucky charm. There are cafes in converted warehouses and the old Shibukawa Donya merchant house to look into. An easy, atmospheric morning stroll between sights.

Public street, open all day; shops generally 10:00-17:00, some closed midweek. Walkable from the centre or one stop on the Tadami line to Nanukamachi Station. Free to stroll. Allow about an hour for browsing.

Set in a relocated old magistrate's building, Takino is the town's standard-bearer for wappa-meshi, the Aizu speciality of seasoned rice and toppings steamed in a round bentwood cedar box. The cedar perfumes the rice as it steams; the classic is the five-colour wappa with salmon, crab, mountain vegetables, mushroom and egg, but seasonal versions follow the local catch and harvest. Eaten in a quiet tatami room, with Aizu sake alongside, it is the regional lunch this morning asks for and a dish you will not find done as well outside the prefecture. Round it out with a bowl of kozuyu, the festive Aizu scallop-broth soup.

Open for lunch and dinner roughly 11:00-20:00; a wappa-meshi set runs around ¥1,500-2,800 (approx., 2026). In the old centre, a short walk from Nanokamachi. Reservations wise at peak times. Allow about an hour.

Out in the rice fields north of the city stands a full-scale recreation of the Nisshinkan, the celebrated domain school where every Aizu samurai son from the age of ten studied Confucian classics, etiquette, martial arts, swimming and astronomy — the original, destroyed in the Boshin War, was one of the finest schools in feudal Japan and held the country's first school swimming pool. The rebuilt complex, opened in 1987 to the original plans, lets you walk the great study hall, the archery and astronomy buildings and the pool, and try hands-on archery, zazen meditation, and akabeko painting. It is a vivid close to a samurai-themed trip, showing the discipline behind the loyalty the town is remembered for.

Open daily roughly 09:00-17:00 (last entry 16:00); around ¥620 adult, experiences extra (approx., 2026). In Kawahigashi, about 20-25 minutes by car north of the centre — best with a rental car or taxi as buses are infrequent. Allow about 75 minutes; book experiences ahead.