Last Updated: Sep 12, 2024

Nishi-Aizu & Kitakata

Diving Deeper into Fukushima Prefecture

This story was originally published on donnykimball.com and has been syndicated here on Medium.

Anyone who has been following me for a while now will know this already but I absolutely loathe when people harp on about Fukushima. Yes, there was a terrible triple disaster back in 2011. No, the entirety of the prefecture isn’t still contaminated with deadly radiation. Can we all just get over this already? I mean, it’s been a decade now but many people overseas still act as if they are going to die the second they eat anything sourced from Fukushima. Allow me to bury the hatchet once and for all; this just ain’t the case folks! What’s more, Fukushima is HUGE, meaning that the reactors will be nowhere near you.

Now that I’ve got my rant out of the way, let’s move on to the main topic of today’s article. In the following sections we’ll be taking a look at a pair of hamlets that are known as Nishi-Aizu and Kitakata. Though I’ve covered the more well known spots in western Fukushima before in this article on Aizu-Wakamatsu and Ouchijuku, this time we’ll be getting even further off of the beaten path. While certainly not what one could call a logistically easy part of Japan to explore, these dual pockets of Fukushima are definitely worth considering if you’re looking for something unique.