a samurai who loved a pine tree

Recently, I just listen to podcasts using my ipod, such as ABC's NightLine, CNN or BBC News, while walking. In term of my everyday routines, walking means just going to and from my office. So, walking with listening to news-podcasts, my thinking is always related to topics that the podcasts are talking about. Walking under cherry trees and looking to their full blooms on a way to my office, I think about how lucky the winner of the recent huge jackpot of the lottery in US, Mega Millions, which CNN podcast talked about at the time.

That's strange.

When I took the pic of Tsuruga-castle, ipods had not yet been in showcases of any stores, including Apple stores (I just wonder if there were any Apple stores in this country at that time). So, walking in the castle, instead of an ipod, I just had a book that a famous novelist sketched his travel around here, while citing histories about this castle and samurai culture related to Aize, I mean, around this area. My thinking naturally went to the samurai who loved a pine tree. The samurai, Mr Gamou, originally came from "Oumi" area, which is near Kyoto (former capital of this country) and has the biggest lake. Before coming to Aizu area, Mr Gamou governed the city that is now pretty famous as a source of a good tasted beef, Matsuzaka-beef. So, this city's name is "Matsuzaka", and "Matsu" means "pine tree" in Japanese. So, both cities, Matsuzaka and Wakamatsu (I mean, here, let's see the previous blog) remind us about Mr Gamou's liking for a pine tree.

Here was Aizu-Wakamatsu city, Japan.