The big 4 day adventure -Exploring Yamagata city

 Firstly, I am surprised at how nice Yamagata city is.

Secondly, it's about to get even nicer!

 Welcome to The Yamagata Bunshokan: the former prefectural office building. 

Per the internet:

The original Bunshokan was built in 1877 but was destroyed in a major fire that swept through Yamagata City in 1911. In 1913, reconstruction was completed, and the building continued to be used until 1975, when the office moved to its current building in the Matsunami district of the city. After being vacated, the Bunshokan was left to fall into disrepair until being designated an Important Cultural Property of Japan in 1984. Soon after, restoration efforts eventually brought the building back to its original condition, and it opened as a museum to the public in 1995. Today you can visit the museum free of charge, and tour its interpretive center and many rooms with original furnishings. Free guides are also available, however, only in Japanese.

What a treat it is to walk around inside this building.

I feel like I'm in a palace.

These are not real people. This is one of the many offices in the Bunshokan set up to show what daily life looked like.

This place is incredible.

The view from the second floor balcony.

Stepping back inside.

Every room is beautiful.

Moving from room to room. Fortunately it's not crowded. Most of the time I'm in a room all by myself.

One of the displays.

Looking out a window. 

This building is attached to the main Bunshokan building.

The front gate entrance to the Bunshokan.

Another view of the front of the Bunshokan. 

After we finished visiting the Bunshokan we returrned our rental car to Nippon Rent-a-car and walked to our hotel for the night. 

Next morning, after breakfast we checked out of the hotel and walked to the  Yamagata Castle Ruins. Emi and Hiroko posing for a picture on the bridge over the outer moat.

Here we are at the Yamagata Castle Ruins. The inner moat is empty.

It's enjoyable to walk around.

We have the place to ourselves.

Your basic Castle Ruins scenery 

More basic Castle Ruins scenery 

Okay, time to move on.

Next it's a short walk to the Yamagata Prefectural Museum where the special treat is this national treasure "The Jomon Goddess".

Somehow I managed to finish walking around the Museum before Hiroko and Emi so I walked around the nice park outside the museum.

Okay, last sight to see before we head to the train station for our trip home.

This is the Old Saiseikan Hospital Building.

It was closed for repair/renovation work. This is a website wit good information:

https://www.gov-online.go.jp/hlj/en/february_2025/february_2025-02.html

After this we walked to Yamagata train station and caught the Shinkansen train to go home. 

It was a wonderful 4 day adventure; well planed by Emi and Hiroko was our excellent rent-a-car driver. I'm looking forward to our next big adventure!

All the best,

Mike