Friday, February 7, 2014

Hikone: An Interlude Between Kyoto and Iida

While I had hoped we would get to Iida in this post, there's still just too much story to tell before we got to our final destination. Between our time in Kyoto and moving in with our host families in Iida, we spent a brief, vibrant day in Hikone. We checked out of our youth hostel early Saturday morning and caught a bus to Kyoto station. From there we hopped on the Japan Railway (JR) Line and started making out way towards Nagoya, where we would be catching a bus bound for the Nagano Prefecture and the city of Iida.

However, as we rode up the eastern shore of Lake Biwa, our professor made the decision to stop off in Hikone, partially at my request. The reason being that following my summer program, I would be spending the academic year studying at the Japan Center for Michigan Universities (JCMU) located in the city of Hikone in Shiga Prefecture. In addition, Hikone is arguably the most important historical city in the prefecture. My professor used to be the Resident Director at JCMU before beginning his tenure at the University of Missouri.


We left our bags in lockers at the eki, or train station, and set out to explore the city. Like any tourist visiting Hikone, the first place our group stopped at was Hikone Castle, an Edo period castle considered to be the most significant, historical building in Shiga Prefecture and one of the few remnants of the Japanese shogunate. I’ll talk more about Hikone Castle in a later post, but here’s what the castle looked like during our visit.

After making our way through the castle grounds, the tickets our professor had bought for us also granted us access to the castle garden and museum about the history of the castle and the city itself. The museum held many artifacts from the Edo period, when the castle was built, including this full suit of samurai armor worn by the warriors that defended Hikone Castle. (Photo courtesy of Kelly Washatka)

The garden was centered around a tea house with a small pond dotted with islands and stone bridges. 


 Much of our day was taken up exploring the area around Hikone Castle, but we were left some time to ourselves before we needed to reconvene and continue to Nagoya. Again our group divided, the majority choosing to try to find the beach on Lake Biwa, an adventure I would later learn would turn up fruitless. This time I went with the minority as we chose to explore the city. I was hoping I could get a better feel for the city I would live in for more than eight months.

We didn’t make it very far, however. In front of the Hikone City Hall, less than 200 yards from the entrance to the castle grounds, there was what I can only describe as a Japanese dance showcase. Dance troupes of varying ages performed dances, which clearly took hours to choreograph, to the accompaniment of drums and flag wavers. The dancers were dressed in brightly colored kimonos and each troupe had its own unique design.


Our Japanese skill was limited at this time, so we never could understand what exactly was going, but it certainly made me very excited to be one day living in that city. As luck would have it, just as the dance showcase wrapped up, it was time to meet back at the train station. Once we had all gathered in front of the station, we collected our bags and boarded the train to Nagoya

Useful phrase in this week’s post:

Eki –  えき

Meaning: train station



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