Hello,

this time is mainly a "castle entry". On my 3rd day I took a break from Nara and decided to go to Hikone and Nagahama for a day trip.
This was quite an unlucky day, though. You'll soon see why.

Hikone and Nagahama (January 6th, 2010):



I left Nara early in the morning in order to have as much time as possible in both cities. I chose a day which was said to have good weather.
Nice weather = good photos, right?
But ....



... while it was nice in Nara, it was not raining, but SNOWING in Hikone!!!!!! GRAAAH!
Btw. Hikone (彦根市) is a city located in Shiga, Japan.



Hikone's most famous historical site is Hikone Castle.
And that's the reason why I wanted to visit Hikone (^-^)v As you know I LOVE castles!



I took a few random photos at the station. It was difficult, because it was windy and in one hand I had my umbrella and in the other my camera (x_X)/



After getting a map in both, English and Japanese, at the tourist information center, I already was on my way to the castle.
Just don't lose any time, hurry up - that's what was on my mind (^-^')>
Speaking of tourist information centers: I had a lot of interesting conversations with the people there in many cities this time. While other foreign tourists were standing in line for the only "tiny" "foreign tourist" counter, I went to the "normal" one, speaking in Japanese with the people.
Sometimes we ended up having a conversation about GOD knows what!!! That's another reason why I love travelling alone :) So many random encounters (^-^)>
I always get to hear that my Japanese sounds so "kirei" - they're talking about my pronunciation, but then I always try to tell them that I'm German and that the German and Japanese pronunciation are MUCH closer than the English and Japanese ones and that's why some English native speakers have a harder time learning proper Japanese pronunciation. It's not that I'm a genius or anything. I'm just lucky enough to have a mother tongue with a similar phonic system XD

Anyways ... let's continue:
The small mascot (on the right) in the picture above is, of course, the macot of Hikone. I became a fan of it IMMEDIATELY! It's so cute!! <3
It's called "Hikonyan", the Samurai Cat! XD



And some more.
To have one of those statues in your garden would be awesome, huh? XD



On my way I also stopped at a random temple and took some photos.





Looks a little bit small for a hotel (o__O'')



No comment - this time! XD



And then I finally reached the castle. This is in front of the castle museum. Because it was snowing quite a lot at that time, I decided to enter it first before going to the actual castle.
They also sold "set tickets" for both which were cheaper than single tickets.



The museum was really interesting and one of the best organized ones I've seen so far. They had proper descriptions in English (and not only one sentence!!) and you were also allowed to take photos (*_*) => paradise!! <33



I love that photo (*__*)





There was a lot of dragon-themed stuff and they also explained about it a lot (in English!!)



Tiger and Dragon *stares at her Livejournal name* XD



That's a HUGE music instrument! And I forgot the name (x____X)



That was also part of the museum. Very beautiful and as you can see it was still snowing (;o;)



A very nice Japanese (inner) garden <3



Back inside the museum. (it was freezing cold outside ;o; .... esp. because you had to take off your shoes!!!)



I left the museum and finally was on my way to the castle :)



Uhm, okay XD



They said that they used different stones and technique for the left and the right side.
I'm not sure if you really can see it. Above is the left side and here comes the right side:





Almost up there I was quite lucky(!) because I was able to see and hear how they rang the bell which only happens once an hour (*__*)v
I also took a short video, not really interesting and too big to upload, but I thought I should mention it XD



As you can see I reached the castle in the end and it even stopped snowing!!! I see a little bit blue shining through the clouds in the sky (*__*)



It's really a small, but beautiful castle, but what it makes so interesting is that it remains one of the oldest original-construction castles in Japan.





Like most castles, Hikone Castle is supposed to offer a really nice view of the city.
Well, it does, but I was just not lucky with the weather that day. It was too cloudy to see far enough :(
Also, it was so windy and cold, that you couldn't go outside, so I had to take photos through the windows (x_x)





On my way back, I took some more photos of the castle. Yeah, I'm a nerd XD







Even from outside the castle you can get quite a nice view.





My last stop was a Japanese Garden that was also included in the "ticket set" thingie I bought.
From there you're supposed to have a nice view of the castle.
First thing I saw was yet another thing under construction, though.



And there it is: Japanese Garden + Castle in the background = rocks!!!! <3
Only the sky looks a little bit scary (O_o'')





Around the castle is a lake kind of thing and you even can take a boat tour. I guess it's nice, but that day was just too cold and I didn't have THAT much time anyways.



What's that???? Excuse me for not knowing, but to me it looks like a black swan??!! (O__O'')





I still had some time and so I strolled around the "Castle Road" with small and old stores and some tiny shrines and temples :)









I went into some side streets as well. It's so amazing what you discover when you leave the main track sometimes





The last few photos look as if it was sooo warm and sunny, huh? GAH!

Well, actually I went back to the station after that to go to Nagahama. I was already veeerrry hungry, it was past noon at that time, but I thought I would buy a ticket and then either eat something at Hikone St. or Nagahama St., but things just went completely wrong from here on ...... I was told that there was an accident (a car crashed into a train) and no JR trains are moving anymore - not since 10am in the morning (which is pretty much the time when I left the last train ...).
I asked them if they knew when trains will be moving again and if that's just for people who want to go to Nagahama or also for people who want to go to Nara etc.
They told me they had NO idea how long it might take and that trains are not moving at ALL no matter which direction!!! It was already 2pm by that time, so 4 hours after the accident and they still had NO idea how much longer it would take? GREAT!
After running around and asking some more people I figured out that I might have to stay here as there was NO way to get back to Nara and my hotel other than taking an expensive taxi x___X ....
Anyway there was another train company other than JR and they still went to Nagahama, so I thought for now I just should go there and continue sightseeing - nothing else I could do at that point anyways.
Because there were like thousands of people standing in line (everybody was using that other line now that JR wouldn't move), I had no chance to eat at all.

After quite a long time (it should have only taken 10 min. from Hikone to Nagahama ... that is ... under normal circumstances, of course x_X), I finally arrived there.
And what awaited me was not very nice: dark, grey, cold, and snowy.
When I finally got of the train there was a snow storm outside. Almost nobody was walking outside anymore, but I thought I came there to see the castle, so no matter what I went there in the end:



Some information: Nagahama (長浜市) is a city located in Shiga Prefecture, Japan on the eastern shore of Lake Biwa. Nagahama used to be known as Imahama (今濱), but Toyotomi Hideyoshi renamed it Nagahama for Oda Nobunaga.



It's interesting that you can't see the snow at all. Shortly after that everything was completely white. As it was not good for my camera, I don't really have any photos of that, though.



Not really nice photos of the castle, but I didn't have a choice, right?



Well, here you can sort of see the snowflakes, I guess (x_X)
Inside of the castle was nice, because it was warm. The people there were quite surprised to see me. There was an old woman at the reception and we were talking about the weather and all. They told me that the weather was awesome the day before, just today it was snowing so much. GREAT!!!! Ugh ... (-___-)
No view from up there at all, because they had to shut all the windows in the top floor because of the snow storm :/ ...



I was told there's something interesting close by the castle, so I tried to find my way through the snow storm, but I couldn't see the buildings clearly, so I ended up in an Onsen Hotel. The people there were really nice and one of them was about to drive somewhere and offered to take me to another sightseeing spot. Very nice :)
That's how I ended up in a train museum kind of thing. Not really interesting for me, but oh well ... better than nothing, right?



I was the only person in there and it was shortly before closing time 5pm anyways. They had to turn the lights back on for me XDDDD
ahahaha~ of course in that sucky weather nobody else goes outside or sightseeing, right? *sigh*



Kind of ironic that I ended up in a train museum after having so much trouble with trains that day (^-^') ..



Although it was not really interesting, I took my time and some photos - so that I wouldn't have to leave Nagahama "empty-handed".





As you might know there are quite a lot of train nerds in Japan. Actually you'll see more Japanese people taking photos of the Shinkansen than foreigners XDDD

After that I went back to the train station and was told that the trains are finally running again.
I didn't lose any time and took the next train that left. It was 5:30pm and I still hadn't eaten anything!!!!! No lunch, no dinner!!! But I just wanted to be in a train that's moving, so that was okay XDDD
As I had to change trains in Kyoto, I decided to spent some time at Kyoto St., go shopping there and eat GOOD dinner - before going back to Nara.
That was probably the best part of the day:



FINALLY food!!!!!! Chinese style (*__*) I even ordered extra gyoza, because I was sooooo hungry!! But that food warmed and filled me up, so that was awesome :D
Also, I had an awesome view from that restaurant over Kyoto at night, it was beautiful (*__*)v



Kyoto Station at night <3
But even there, department stores close quite early, so I ran out of things to do there XD



The famous Kyoto Tower with surrounding illumination <3



There was also an ikebana exhibition in front of the station. Illuminated the whole night, even security guards were around XD









And then I finally went back to Nara - this time without any problems.
What an eventful day. I was almost crying at some point that day asking myself why I'm so unlucky. As you know that has not been the first time during that vacation. It was just too much on that day, cold, snow, no trains running, not knowing if I would be able to get back to my hotel, no good photos of castles, wasted time blahhhhh~


Anyways, I hope you enjoyed this entry (^-^)>
Next will be my last day in Nara. Then, I left for Osaka.
Please stay tuned for more.

☆⌒(*^-゜)ノ~♪see you again♪~ヾ(゜-^*)⌒☆