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.
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 – 駅
Meaning: train station
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