13th May - Omihachiman to Azuchi and return

We woke to our first completely sunny blue-skied day on this trip. After doing some washing and hanging it up we did a speedy 2km walk to the railway station to try and catch the 9:51 train. We missed it by about 30 seconds, but it didn't matter. The next train was along in just 15 minutes. We used the time very wisely to buy a coffee (pour moi) at the adjacent 7-Eleven, and also two onigiri rice balls for our picnic lunch.

The train ride was a ridiculously short 3-minute ride to the next station of Azuchi. This was to be our last planned hiking day. John had sorted out a 9km loop that took us out of town, up a hill, down again, up another hill, down again and back to the station. The sights along the way included the usual, i.e. a castle and temples.

It started out well. We soon accepted that the climb up to the ruins of the castle was as steep as the online information about it had suggested. We'd brought out walking poles with us in anticipation and were very pleased we had. The track started off with a wonderful temple, flanked by some seriously aggressive looking guardian lions. The loop track above this was closed off so we had to walk around to the end of the loop and start our ascent there. 

The castle complex is now in ruins but it must have been very impressive in its time. It was built on the whim of one Oda Nobunaga in 1576, principally to provide him with his own personal temple. The buildings were constructed over a number of levels up the sides of the hill, with a 7-level castle keep on the highest point. The buildings were burnt down at various times over the centuries. Even though the structures were no longer there other than foundation stones, it was a site well worth visiting, both for appreciating the stunning location and also the effort that must have gone into levelling the terraces and building the structures.

View out across Lake Biwa

Nice little 4-level pagoda

With a fair amount of panting we managed the ascent and descent pretty well, though John was annoyed that his knees were quite sore. Around 11:30am we snacked on our rice balls in the shade of a tree and considered the options from here. The prospect of doing an even steeper ascent and descent over double the distance to visit the nearby temple was not tempting, at all. Instead, we opted to wander along a path that would bring us back into Azuchi town in 2-3 kilometres.

The path led us past some modern-ish buildings constructed in perhaps the 1980s or 1990s. They featured an inexplicably bad pastiche of European design, e.g. abbey-like, turrets, arches and more. As bad a group of architecture as you could get. Their location in amongst the rural landscape and well away from the town was also quite bizarre. One of these buildings housed the Azuchi museum, others the district headquarters. Behind the latter there was an original farmhouse, built in 1754, and supposedly with the original thatch. This was really interesting, especially the thatched roof, and contrasted wildly with a very large square brick building and associated trellis which was signposted as a 'multi-purpose square toilet'. Japan never ceases to amaze us.

Ghastly architecture

Perhaps we were a little lacking in electrolytes by now to appreciate the finer points of the assembled 'modern' buildings, and it was a warm 25 degrees by now. It was with some relief, and 15km total later, that we arrived back at the Azuchi Station. The ride back was superfast and this time we opted to catch a bus rather than walk the final 2km back to our accommodation.

Sinking a cold beer (0 alc) was a perfect tonic after a big day's effort. It was a fun expedition and, as with visiting other castle or temple sites, not one has disappointed us. In fact, each has intrigued us.