Castles near Fukushima City
Checking out Google Maps for possible bicycle ride routes we found there are a number of castles within 20 kilometres of Fukushima City.
We were excited, having visited Nihonmatsu Castle many times. But after checking a little more we found that most of the other sites nearby were really ruined, only traces of the earthworks remain.
We also realised that while castles conjured up images of ninjas and shoguns and samurai most of these castles had been built by the wealthy farmers and traders as bases for their activities.
However, they provided a good range of ride destinations and a chance to investigate more about the area we live in.
Here's more general information about ninjas (忍者 aka shinobi 忍び) and samurai (侍) and Fukushima City (福島市).
Most of the information we've found has been on Japanese websites translated using Google Translate installed as an extension on our browser. This means the names often have multiple spellings in English.
The references at the bottom of each page contain more photos and historical information.