Our short trip has unfortunately already come to an end, but as usual I have brought back a whole host of memories. The images in my head are still very fresh and far from being processed. And even though everyday life starts again straight away and takes over, it will hopefully take a while before I have put all these images and memories away.

The important thing now is to recall what I have experienced as often as possible and, as so often, I am using my blog to do this. Here I am able to upload a few of my pictures and at the same time review what I have seen and record some of my thoughts in words and writing. I have found that it does me a lot of good and at the same time I anchor my experiences really deeply in my memories, where they will hopefully have a place forever.

And that's exactly why today, and probably over the next few days, there will be a few small picture galleries in which I'll keep selecting a few photos that I took during our short trip. I hope that I will soon be able to write a few longer posts in which I can present some of the places I visited for the first time in a little more detail.

The first photo shows the entrance area of the Enzoji temple in Yanaizu, where autumn was still really colorful. Unfortunately, the weather wasn't on our side, but somehow that doesn't seem to show in my pictures.

Picture two is from a shrine in Aizu Wakamatsu, and until I reached this exact spot, I first had to walk up quite a few steps, which have become quite steep over time, which must probably be centuries. Once I reached the top, I was definitely out of breath.

Picture number 3 shows a large toori, the typical entrance gate to a shrine area, which we discovered in Higashiyama. The actual shrine was further up the mountain, but at this time of year there are still a lot of bears around, so we decided not to walk all the way to the top.

Here we have an almost magical-looking maple tree, whose leaves were still glowing in bright red color. I didn't want to let go of this sight and would have loved to stay here forever.

At the end we get a glimpse of Tsuruga-jo, the old samurai castle in Aizu-Wakamatsu. Even if it's not an original anymore, it still looks amazing, especially with this great gingko tree in the foreground.

So, the above were a few first pictures from Aizu and there are plenty more where they came from. We'll continue tomorrow and I'll pick out a few new photos for us then. Please make sure you come back here again so that you won't miss anything!