*Biwako at Otsu City. Sony A7C + 40/1.2 Voigtlander Nokton.*

Biwako, or Lake Biwa, is Japan’s largest lake. There is absolutely no way we can do it justice in just two days—the Biwachi, the famous 200km cycling tour trail around Biwako (and a play on the famous bicycle brand Bianchi), would take longer (assuming the cyclist was more concerned with sightseeing than pure speed). Our trip here was therefore more of a sampler of the beautiful sights around the Biwako, and our appetite was definitely whetted for more.

*Waiting at Gifu City JR station for the train to Maibara to transfer to the JR Biwako Line. Sony A7C + 16/1.8 Viltrox AF.*

Hikone

We did a quick stop at Hikone. It was about a mile from the JR Hikone Station to Hikone castle town, and an easy climb up the stairs to the castle keep. The entrance tickets to Genkyuen Garden, HIkone Castle, and Hikone Castle museum can be bought together as a package, which is highly recommended.

Genkyuen Garden is a renowned scenic garden built and improved by successive generations of the Ii clan that was the daimyo of Hikone castle. It was modelled after a Tang Chinese Garden, featuring a large pond and islands therein. In the autumn, it would be absolutely breathtaking with the fiery foliage. The sound of the castle bell ringing amongst the insect sounds in Genykuen Garden is one of Japan’s 100 soundscapes. We also spotted many birds, water or otherwise in the garden and the vicinity of the castle. A crying hawk or two kept circling lazily above us as the day heats up.

*One of the bridges at Genkyuen Garden. Sony A7C + 16/1.8 Viltrox AF.*

Make sure you have a plastic bag before going to Hikone Castle for your shoes, as no shoes are allowed inside the castle or the museum. They do give out plastic bags at the ticket booths and castle entrance, but it’s always a good idea to have our own and minimise plastic waste!

*Hikone Castle from the side. Sony A7C + 16/1.8 Viltrox AF.*

Getting to the castle was the easy part. The tricky part was the interior of the castle itself. The stairs were more like ladders—very steep and narrow, and with lots of tourists pouring in all the time, it made navigation very tricky and dangerous.

*Hikone Castle from a distance. The ‘famous’ view is usually taken during cherry blossom season or during the fall. Sony A7C + 40/1.2 Voigtlander Nokton.*

Hikone castle is steeped in history and legacy, especially with the most famous and illustrious of the Ii clan—Ii Naosuke. He was a crucial figure who helped Japan negotiate the perilous political and diplomatic time, both internally and externally, when Captain Matthew C Perry arrived in Japan and forced her to open up to the world. Outside of his massive political achievements, Ii Naosuke was also a polymath who was talented in many things, such as writing and especially his passion of the tea ceremony in the Sekishūryū style. The Hikone Castle Museum has more extensive information on Ii Naosuke’s life (amongst many other things)—they have English guides printed out on papers to make it easy for foreign visitors who don’t read Japanese too.

At the Hikone Castle Grounds. The construction of the castle itself is very interesting—we learned a lot about the innovations that went into the design in order to make the castle as defensive as possible, such as thicker walls to withstand bullets, and hidden slots for snipers and archers in the turrets. Sony A7C + 16/1.8 Viltrox AF.

Hikone itself is worth more than just a few hours’ visit like we did (make sure you get the vegan black bean soy ice cream at the castle town!), but we had to rush to the next destination. Azuchi castle was in my itinerary (and would have been a nice ‘sequel’ to Gifu Castle as it was Oda Nobunaga’s final castle before his assassination), but due to a lack of time we had to skip it and move on to Omihachiman.

*Waiting for the train at Hikone JR Station. Sony A7C + 16/1.8 Viltrox AF.*

Omihachiman

Omihachiman is a pretty big city! It would take around half an hour or more to walk from the Omihachiman JR Station to Hachimanbori (we ended up walking back in the evening), but it’s easy to take a bus in the city (the buses take Suica cards, so no need to worry about having exact change).

After Oda Nobunaga’s and Azuchi Castle’s fall, the center of the town was shifted by then-heir of Toyotomi Hideyoshi, Toyotomi Hidetsugu (although I believe at this time they were still using the Hashiba surname?) to Omihachiman. Merchants who had previously enjoyed good relationship with Oda Nobunaga (probably one of the world’s first political proponent and practitioner of the free market) sought refuge there after the fall of Azuchi Castle, and Hidetusu proved to be a competent daimyo and ruler of the city. A few blocks of the city around the canals are merchant houses that have been preserved as Important Cultural Landscape and as a Preservation District.

*You can take boat tours up and down the canals if you’d like! Kinda wish we can paddle instead though. Sony RX100V.*

We paid a quick visit to Himurei Hachimangu Shrine, which gave the city its name. A cosplayer in what looked like a Madoka costume was having a photoshoot when we were there.

*Himurei Hachimangu Shrine. The shrine is lined with gigantic ancient trees. Sony RX100V.*

*Himurei Hachimangu Shrine. Sony RX100V.*

We were supposed to go to up the Hachiman Ropeway to visit Hachimanyama Castle Ruins, but guess what, we stumbled upon another trail! Google Maps is absolutely useless at this juncture, but please don’t be like us and hike a trail up a mountain without actual preparation (such as finding routes first on apps like Komoot or AllTrails).

*Started out innocuously enough. There were no warnings about dangerous trail like the ones we encountered at Gifu City so we happily charged ahead. Sony RX100V.*

Wild boar warnings. Wild boars are becoming more and more common in Japan as their number explodes. PLEASE DO NOT FEED THE WILD BOARS! They are absolutely dangerous wild animals and we need them to fear humans instead of associating humans with food! We didn’t see any (I read that wild boars are crepusucular to avoid human encounters), but we did see a huge ass snake that really caught me by surprise. Sony RX100V.

The trail is not too steep and it’s not dangerous at all, but it can be muddy when wet.

*Passed by the ropeway a few times on the trail. Sony RX100V.*

*A view of the Biwako that greeted us when we reached the top. Sony RX100V.*

If you intend to take the Ropeway down, just be mindful that the station closes at 5PM, and the last car ascends at 445PM. We debated about taking it down, but eventually decided to try find another trail to descend.

*One of the many mountain cats on Mt Hachiman. Sony RX100V.*

There is no actual castle to visit this time—the ruins are not even visible like Naegi Castle Ruins at Nakatsugawa. The biggest remainder of what used to be Toyotomi Hidetsugu’s castle apart from the moats/canals we saw earlier is just a pile of stones. Even though his castle was destroyed, and his family and household brutally massacred by Toyotomi Hideyoshi (his adoptive father and uncle) at the end of his short life, Hidetsugu’s legacy remains in the success of the families of the merchants who moved to Omihachiman during his short management, and who went on to achieve intergenerational success and wealth.

*A cat at the Zuiryuji Temple found at the summit of the mountain. Sony RX100V.*

*Looking out to the Biwako scenery at Zuiryuji Temple. Sony RX100V.*

The sun was rapidly setting and we definitely did not want to lose daylight while descending the mountain. There was a sign that pointed to ‘Park entrance/exit’ in kanji and we followed that sign down (please make sure you have trail maps before hiking an unfamiliar terrain!). We eventually found a sign that said ‘DIFFICULT TRAIL! No children or high heels’ and we thought the sign didn’t sound as bad as the one at Gifu City so we pressed on.

Reader, it was a much more difficult trail.

*Stacked rocks at the trail. Sony RX100V.*

The trail was mostly very steep loose gravel or dirt that required scrambling, and in some parts we were pretty close to the cliff face. It would have been much easier to hike this up than down, especially when you’re not prepared (no poles!) like us. But it was definitely fun, and the view was amazing. The most bizarre thing was how the descent ended: in a still, quiet forest of bamboos, with stacked chopped bamboos forming mazes like grave stones.

It turns out that this is private land for a bamboo logging company. The trail does still officially pass through the land, but there are signs reminding you that it’s private property and to not damage the bamboos. Sony RX100V.

*A much more immersive bamboo forest experience than Arashiyama, without any of the tourists! Sony RX100V.*

After a quick dinner, we went to our final stop of Otsu City to check into our hotel, the Biwako Hotel. The climate around Biwako is very windy and chilly even in late May! I put on all my layers during my time here.

Otsu City

The cool thing about the Biwako area is the sheer number of cycling rental and repair stores due to the popularity of the Biwachi. We found a bicycle rental store called Cycle Station a few minutes walk away from our hotel at the Otsu City Port.

We cycled over to Omi-Jingu, which enshrines Japan’s first emperor.

*The Saturday morning light hitting the temple. Sony RX100V.*

*The shrine was already starting to fill with families coming in to visit or worship. There were also many people exercising or hiking in the forest around the temple. Sony RX100V.*

(Cycling infrastucture rant time: please feel free to scroll down for pictures instead!)

A slightly frustrating thing about cycling at Otsu City is the lack of proper segregated cycling lane. Most of the time there is a narrow lane created by painting a blue line (in many places, extremely faded) on the road. I think Japanese drivers in general have cleared the absolute minimum bar of not actively trying to kill cyclists out of sheer spite and prejudice (unlike in some other countries), but the main road in Otsu City is still a small two-way two lanes, and pretty much all the time a slightly bigger car, bus, or truck will have to run over the lane.

There are still many, many cyclists, both local and tourists, leisure riders, commuters, or zippy road cyclists, on the road, although a handful also opt to stick as much as possible to whatever pass as pedestrian path (sometimes it’s a raised path, sometimes it’s another line on the road to be shared with the bicycles, other times it’s not). For someone like me who have the unfortunate trauma of having been hit by a car before, it'‘s very unnerving.

Cycling in Japan is, like many parts of the country, a mishmash of contradictions. It’s extremely popular and so many people do it, and there are painted cycling lanes on the road and/or pedestrian paths, but there are very, very few physically segregated cycling lanes. Outside of the cities, cyclists would have to share narrow roads (sometimes winding one-lane two-way mountainous roads) with vehicles driving at very high speed. I can see how it would be hard for the different cities to find the momentum to improve the state of the cycling infrastructure since they are technically already more advanced than many cities in the world, such as Singapore. It’s the same kind of “it’s good enough, and people are using it with no major complaints” complacency found all around the world that sets in as inertia when it comes to improving public infrastructure.

But all in all, I still feel much safer cycling in Japan than I do in Singapore. I read online that there’s a sentiment that Japanese drivers are more considerate, and many of them are cyclists themselves given how popular cycling is in Japan. I still encounter some cars that obnoxiously speed even in tiny residential 30km/h roads and with many cyclists and pedestrians, including schoolchildren, on the road—for some reason, it’s always those small minivans. I tell myself they’re probably delivery vans rushing to meet deadlines, but still, this kind of reckless driving truly endangers so many lives unnecessarily.

There were many other shrines in my itinerary, but we decided to cycle to Outdoor Sports O’Pal to rent kayaks instead. It’s a really clean and welcoming club for water sports, and the staff were very friendly (and we met an American staff there, so definitely English-speaking!). We paid for around 3500 Yen for 3 hours of kayak rental, but it’s unlikely you will take that long as the club only allows for the kayaks to stay within a relatively small area around the launching point. We couldn’t also take the time to practice rolling or other skills as they didn’t provide spray skirts. But it’s the only place we can find that rents kayaks around Otsu City and we were happy to be able to have the chance to paddle at Biwako! We were told that the club does run short kayak expeditions to visit what I believe is the Ukimido shrine, but it needs to be guided. I’m not sure if we can paddle around the perimeter of Biwako, but that definitely sounds like a really fun expedition and I would sign up immediately if it’s available!

Kayaking at Outdoor Sports O'Pal, Biwako. Shot on DJI Action 4.

(There’s BSC Watersports centre nearer to Biwako Hotel, but they don’t seem to do ad-hoc kayak rentals, although they also carry many other water sports, like windsurfing!)

The conditions in Biwako can literally change at the drop of a hat. When we launched, the water was flat and pristine, but when the wind suddenly blew the water became choppy extremely quickly. The club told us that this is still mild in comparison to how choppy and difficult Biwako could be, so just something to keep in mind, especially when coming from a country with mild water conditions like Singapore! There’s a reason why they windsurf there after all!

*The company that owns the Biwako Hotel also runs this cruise modelled after a paddle steamer. It’s aptly named Michigan! Sony A7C + 40/1.2 Voigtlander Nokton.*

*A little floating house for the swans waddling around the lake. Sony A7C + 40/1.2 Voigtlander Nokton.*

After returning our bikes, we made our way to Onjoji Miidera Temple which was close to the hotel.

There are plenty of private jetties for pleasure boats! Also, if you like sailing, there is a huge sailing school at Otsu City. Sailing around the Biwako is apparently a time-honoured tradition and race that has been done since the 19th century! Sony A7C + 40/1.2 Voigtlander Nokton.

*Golden hour setting in. Sony A7C + 40/1.2 Voigtlander Nokton.*

Unfortunately, the Miidera temple was already closed by the time we reached and we could not get inside the temple grounds. We visited the nearby Mio-jinja shrine instead.

*At the Mio-Jinja shrine. Sony A7C + 40/1.2 Voigtlander Nokton.*

The kanji ‘Mio-jinja’ refers to ‘three tails’, as the deity enshrined and worshipped here has three girdles that looks like tails. There are also many bunny icons on display!

*Cairn rocks at the Mio-Jinja shrine. Sony A7C + 40/1.2 Voigtlander Nokton.*

*Streetscape, Otsu City. Sony A7C + 40/1.2 Voigtlander Nokton.*

We would be leaving Otsu City the next day for Kyoto. Looking at the Keihan Railway station from which we would take the train tomorrow already made me feel wistful knowing that I was going to miss this city and Biwako a lot, and hopefully I would be able to return again and explore further!

A taste of the Biwako

Hikone

Omihachiman

Otsu City

Kyoto: Kurama to Kibune, Philosopher’s Path, and Takao to Arashiyama

Gero and Gifu City: Onsen and Ukai