After exploring Nagoya (if you don’t know about that, please check out my previous blog,) we headed North West to Lake Biwa in Shiga prefecture. The train journeys that day were very beautiful through the mountains and fields. Upon arrival in Hikone, we went to get food at a local spot that did fresh falafel and salad in pita. It was really wonderful and fresh, much better than all of us expected considering it was right out in the middle of nowhere. The staff were kind and the restaurant was cozy and decorated really nicely. I would highly recommend it. (I’ll drop a link to the place if I can find one, before I post this.)
After food, we had a walk through the streets towards the castle. Most places on Biwa are really inaccessible if you don’t have a car, so next time we head that way, we’ll for sure rent one. Hikone though is an exception. The trains were easy and all the attractions were within walking distance of the station. If you can’t drive in Japan but want to visit lake Biwa, Hikone is the place to go. The castle is also high up, so the views of the lake and the mountains once you get up there are really something else. We also got a ticket that allowed us to look around the museum as well as the castle, which I recommend considering you can walk around the insides of what was a royal home, and see genuine artifacts for essentially what is around two pounds.
Next to the castle ground there is also a beautiful Japanese garden, which was peaceful and exactly where we needed to rest our legs after all that walking. We got plenty of local souvenirs from the gift shop on the way out and treated ourselves to a cute indie coffee before getting the trains back to Aichi. It was a busy day, but definitely one of our favourite day trips so far in Japan, filled with beautiful sites (the lake, the mountains, the city), Japanese gardens, a castle, museum and delicious food and coffee. Honestly, we couldn’t have asked any more of Hikone!. It was the perfect introduction to Shiga and the Biwa area!
SIDENOTE: I am trying to keep these blog posts shorter than the last ones, focusing more on photos and vibes as I have a lot of ground to cover to get you caught up with our antics of 2024 so far. Hope you still enjoy them though!
