I went to visit my friend Aiko’s (from my portrait of a Japanese person post) town a couple of weeks ago. Aiko lives in Hikone, Shiga prefecture. Hikone is famous for Hikone Castle and my friend’s house is within close walking distance so we went!
First we went and walk around the gardens across the street from the castle. In the center of the garden is a huge pond with teahouses facing it. There are a lot of beautiful trees on the path around the garden, if we would have waited to go the leaves probably would have been changed to lovely colors. We did a little tea ceremony in one of the tea houses which used to be a guest house for visitors of the Hikone clan. Outside the garden along the road were some sakura. Aiko’s mom told us these sakura bloom twice a year!
Next we went to the actual castle. Its built on a hill so we had to climb tons of stairs up. At the top there is a fantastic view of Lake Biwa-the largest lake in Japan. The castle itself is only three floors but the interesting thing about it is parts from three other destroyed castles were used in its building. So despite the castle being smaller than others in Japan its design is beautiful with different types of windows and roof designs and gables. The castle is surrounded by a couple moats and you can take a ride in a traditional boat (yakata-bune).
After visiting the castle we walked around the souvenir street that was filled with items with the mascot of Hikone castle-Hiko-nyan (a cat wearing a samurai helmet).
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When you buy your tickets you can get some brochures in English or Japanese that tell you a bit about the castle and the gardens.
You can learn more about Hikone castle (and other castles in Japan) here.
Great place for photos, as you illustrate here. I like the mascot!
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