Hikone Castle

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). 

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. 

http://library.thinkquest.org/C001119/tour/parse.php3?src=hikone

School Festival

My college just held its annual school festival. School festivals are held in Japanese schools from preschools to universities. 

Student clubs and organizations work for weeks before the festival. Students make food booths, cafes, live houses with student bands performing. 

School festivals also have performances done by students throughout the day. This year my school had a Miss Gaidai Contest, a fashion show blending Western and Japanese styles and the cheerleaders performed. 

Maru Maru Mori Mori!

The cheerleaders incorporated some of the Maru Maru Mori Mori dance into their routine. Maru Maru Mori Mori is a dance that the two child stars of the drama Marumo no Okite performed during the closing credits of the show. 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RWV_rx5PYD4

Kansai Gaidai also had a guest performer come on the second day of the festival. Shimizu Shota is a famous singer so my friends were really excited to be able to see him in person on their college campus. He's a soul singer of types and has even performed in New York. 

http://www.shimizushota.com/index.html

The theme of the festival this year was My Treasure. I think it was supposed to be copying the One Piece manga with nautical imagery like whales, skulls, and compasses. 

The stairs were decorated with a wave and skull motif. 

Some of the most interesting booths to me were the jerk chicken booth, cotton candy booth, and tempura ice cream booth. The jerk chicken booth had a whole DJ set up and was blasting Bob Marley while they were grilling up chicken for people. One of my friend's clubs did cotton candy but they had flavors like melon and mango which we don't have in America so I was pretty excited. The most popular booth was the tempura ice cream which was so delicious, I wish we had it on campus everyday. They had an airline theme too and a guy dressed like a pilot told you when your order was ready. Students put so much work into their school festivals and really show their creativity.