Visiting Hikone Castle

Posted on October 31, 2014 by samokan

Hello Hello Blogger world, I hope you are still out there. I’m well and good, if you don’t mind me saying.

Anyways, let me get back to writing some of my recent escapades here in Japan.

Summer is gone and it’s getting colder each day.

One of the places I visited last Summer(2014) is Hikone Castle, in Shiga Prefecture. Unfortunately though P,S and I got rained on all day long. We did manage to visit the castle for a few minutes and decided to call it a day when the rain started again as we were heading to Lake Biwa for a short walk.

It was still fun, I guess the three of us just have to make good of what the day would offer.

Here is P as my model for the garden with the castle as the backdrop.

Taking a short tour in the garden while the rain temporarily stopped.

On our way. Outer moat of the castle.

Stairs to Castle.

Hikone Castle.

A closer look.

Nearest station is Hikone Station of the JR Line. We were able to catch with a local tour bus (only Japanese) and I think we paid 250yen.

Manhole : Otsu City

Posted on April 8, 2014 by samokan

Otsu City is the capital of Shiga Prefecture and is know for the location of Lake Biwa.

So I guess it is not surprising to to see some of the famous activities around the Lake including the dragon boat competition, fire work displays , cruise around the lake and some other water activities.

At the bottom of this design it the City’s flag.

At the top is the City’s Bird: Black-headed Gull.

Flower: Viola Eizanensis

Very detailed is it not ? 🙂

Hiking Mt. Otowa

Posted on April 4, 2014 by samokan

Mt. Otowa serves as a border between Kyoto Prefecture(East) and Shiga Prefecture(West), so depending which side of the mountain you are are you can either be in Kyoto or Shiga.

I was able to join a Hiking group : “Hiking in Kansai” , last March. Despite my pollen allergy, I tried to enjoy as much as nature this Spring has to offer.

The rendezvous point is a station called Otani of the Keihan Line. It took about 1.5 hours just to get there. It was a very small station that even a toilet does not exist.
I got there about 30 minutes early, and everybody started arriving by 9. Some where late for a few minutes so we have to wait almost an hour for everybody to arrive and use the toilet first.

A few meters away from the station, found this interesting street sign that says ” Beware of the Eel”. There is actually a restaurant there which specially in dishes involving eel.

There were 23 participants in all with different levels so the organizer was very nice to accommodate everybody. I did not mind the slow pace, specially when I saw this long stairs.. arrggg, I hate stairs.

When we got a little higher, we saw a little part of Lake Biwa.

Almost to the peak. We took a short break and wait for the rest of the folks who were still behind.

I reach the peak of Mt. Otowa. We took a break here and had our lunch while enjoying this view.

The view while I was having my lunch.

On our way down, we pass by Ushio Kannonji (牛尾観音寺) but it looks like this temple has seen better days.

I am not sure if this place is already abandoned since there is a working kitchen and toilet and there were some construction equipment everywhere.

A short description of the temple, unfortunately I can’t read it. 😦

A very nice view in front of the temple. I think there was a big landslide in the area last year, I guess that was the purpose of the construction equipment.

Farther down, part of the road has also caved in. Until this part is fix, hiking in this area will not be safe during rainy season.

I was just up there.

The group was very nice. The organizer and his wife were very accommodating and nice couple. If you have a facebook account and is in Kansai, try to join some of their Hiking Event I’m sure you will have fun 🙂

Till the next hiking adventure.