At the advice of my friend Suzuki-san, Audrey and I took a day trip to Inawashiro Lake which is about an hours drive south of Yonezawa.  On the north side of the lake there is a memorial museum to Dr. Hideyo Noguchi who was born near the lake.  He was a famous Japanese bacteriologist who worked on the cure for yellow fever in the early 1900's.  His birth home is part of the memorial complex.

On the way to Inawashiro, crossing over the mountains, Audrey and I got to see some beautiful fall scenery.  In this photo, there is one waterfall across the gorge between the trees on the left-hand side, and another on the right.

Another view of the waterfalls and the fall colors.

As we descend on the other side of the mountain range we can see another lake in the valley north of the Bandai volcano.  The lake below is about 15 kilometers north of Inawashiro Lake.

Finally we arrived at the Noguchi memorial.  This house at the memorial complex is Dr. Noguchi's birthplace. It is a traditional Japanese house from the late 1800's.  You can find out more information about Dr. Noguchi by following this link. 

This is an inside view of the Noguchi house.  You can see the pit in the floor on the right where the cooking was done.  There is a spinning wheel and a weaving loom on the left.  The memorial was very interesting because Dr. Noguchi has such close ties to the US.  Many of the signs were in English so we could follow along.

This view is from a boat dock on Inawashiro Lake looking northward toward Bandai Volcano.  The volcano is similar in type to Mount St. Helens in the US.  It last blew it's top in the late 1800's.  Inawashiro Lake is also famous for it's swans which come here in the winter.

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