Isabella Bird described poverty and difficult travel in 1878 Fukushima

Isabella Bird traveled through the Aizu region in 1878 on a route that had linked Fukushima and Tochigi since the Edo period.

She wrote about poverty, hard work and crowded villages along the way.

At Yokokawa, she said she ate outside to avoid fleas in a teahouse.

Her account offers a foreign traveler’s view of life in the region at that time.