What another great day! A very reasonable start time of 8:51am for our first train today, an 18-minute transfer time to train number two, and a 19-minute transfer time to train number three. At the end of that we found ourselves in the small town of Hikone beside Lake Biwa. After squeezing all our bags into one locker at the train station (we're getting pretty good at this) we had a 15 minute walk up the main street to the foot of Hikone Castle hill.
We are very much enjoying seeking out these castles. Like the castle at Matsue, Hikone castle is one of only five in Japan designated as national treasures. It was built in 1607 and the style of architecture and system of construction are stand-out features. Hikone castle was not a place of residence but a donjon i.e. it was a heavily fortified military tower. An unusually wide moat was dug around the base of the hill with multiple levels of walls layered up the hillside, complete with gateways, baileys and turrets. A tower complete with a large drum was used for signalling if required. At the base of the complex is an old stable which once housed 21 horses and is the only remaining stable at any castle in Japan.
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| Hikone Castle stables |
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| The lowest gate to the castle |
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| The daimyo's personal armour |
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| A particularly splendid and famous set of screens |
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| The daimyo's view from his main living area |
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| A contemporary plan of the residence - it's vast and complex |
It was a stiff climb up the steps to the main donjon at the top of the hill, and then the stairs inside to ascend the five levels were exceedingly steep. Again we saw a woman freaking out at the prospect of having to descend them - they really were brutal. After coming down the steps our legs were like putty. The steps were 30-40cm, and the flights were much steeper than 45 degrees.
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| Entrance gate to the upper bailey |
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| Hikone Castle's main tower |
From the donjon it was a short walk to the adjacent Genkyu-en garden. We are not tiring of these gardens. Quite the opposite. Each is different in their form, landscape elements, extent and intent. Genkyu-en garden is quite small in relation to many others we have visited, being essentially a stroll around one good-sized lake. However, it evokes a wonderfully calm feeling and is very enjoyable for its simplicity. These gardens really are one of the highlights of our trip, as in previous visits.
We managed to get back to the train station by 2pm in time to catch the train for the short hop back to Omihachiman, where we are booked to stay for the next three nights. Our accommodation for the last two stops has been in hotel rooms attached to the main railway station. This time we are in a little 100-year-old Japanese house and have the whole place to ourselves. It's lovely. The host met us when we arrived at 3pm. We are pretty much in the historic quarter and are right beside a canal. Ten metres away is the historic merchants' street, with its iconic architecture. We're pretty excited about staying here.
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| Part of our rental house |
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| An Omihachiman street |
A quick unpack, followed by picking up a few items from the supermarket nearby and then we were out for a short wander around, on the understanding that the next stop would be to have a local craft beer beside the canal, at the Two Rabbits Brewery. That worked well! Soon after we found the little eatery that John had Googled, and had the most interesting and partly identifiable meal that we'd had in quite a while.
It was quite some effort finding the restaurant. We knew exactly where it was, but even standing there it was very hard to work out which building we needed to go in. This isn't unusual as restaurants very often depend on the clients knowing exactly where they are, and only learning through going with other people.
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| Our restaurant, impossible to find until lit up after we arrived |
On this trip the only food we hadn't had so far was yakitori, i.e. charcoal grilled. Our restaurant for tonight was Minna-no-Ie, a yakitori-based izakaya. We picked a whole load of little dishes to make our meal, along with our first flask of sake - delicious by the way. Pickles, fluffy meatballs, a weird but tasty sticky tofu ball, garlic anchovy crunchy potato wedges (outstanding), 2 rounds of 5 assorted skewers of chicken chosen by the chef, shiitake mushrooms and eggplant.
The chef came out to make sure we really wanted him to choose the 5 types of chicken! We ended up with plain chicken, special thigh chicken wrapped in chicken skin, chicken liver, gizzards and cartilage. All were delicious, with an odd range of textures, particularly the last. The charcoal grill flavour was specially good. I think it's only the third dinner we've had without rice or noodles. We walked out thoroughly sated and pleased with our choices. As always the staff were super helpful.
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| Pickles, strange rubbery tofu, sake |
The helpfulness of everybody has been a theme this trip. Yesterday we were in a shop looking for origami paper. A woman noticed us looking at the shop plan, asked us (in good English) what we were looking for, and walked us some distance around the shop to the section we were after.
This little town of Hachimori is a delight. Very small scale, and well-preserved after a past of being a trading centre. Here and at Hikone we're back to being almost the only Europeans around. It's a relief after the people-dense horrors of Kyoto. Our room is actually a full holiday house - it can sleep 8 people. We have a little Japanese garden outside our main room, two other living areas, a full kitchen, and so on. It's lovely having so much space. The railway station hotels have everything you might need, but are pretty tight.
P.S. I wasn't so enamoured with the chargrilled cartilage!
