2014-04-18, Another Day, Another Castle

2015-04-18, Another Day, Another Castle

Finally!  A beautiful Saturday!  I decided to go to a town north of Hikone called Nagahama.  It's supposed to have a number of interesting sites, which I will check out another time.  Yesterday (Saturday) I decided to rent a bicycle at the station ($4.50/day can't be beat) since unfortunately you can't bring your own bike on the train.  Maybe I will be brave enough one day to bike from Hikone.  It's about 30 km so round trip - about 20 miles or so???   In Nagahama there is a pretty little castle (rebuilt) very close to the station with a playground, park, water fountain and lakeside park near the station.

Nagahamajo

??  I'll have to find out who these women are...

A Biwako lakeside park - I haven't found anything this nice in Hikone yet.

Look how green it is!

As it turns out I ended up biking 16 miles going  to and from the station to the Kohoku Wildlife Center. 

I was hoping they would have some birding material for sale since the book stores don't.  Jake has convinced me that I would enjoy bird watching and identification and there are so many different birds here.  They had a small brochure with a few pictures but no charts (except for their own use) or books.  But it was a very interesting place with at least 10 telescopes focused on different birds and nests that were across the street in the lake and trees.  There were 3 or 4 staff and just a couple of visitors so I had a private guide.  We looked up a number of birds in a book that had English names and I will try to memorize the Japanese counterpart.  There are a lot of hawk like birds, possibly 'kites' but they don't have a forked tail... that circle above in groups of 15 - 20 or so.  It's just an amazing site and I have to stop and just stand there watching them each time I see them. My guide said that in the fall there are about 150 swans who arrive and stay for a few months. I'll have to try to get back and see them. Maybe it will be like the scene in the movie 'The Notebook'.

As always when going to a new place, the ride to the center seemed longer than the ride back.  On the way there I stuck to a road that went along Biwako so there was no chance I'd get lost.  For a good part of the trip the sidewalk was lined with sakura (no more blossoms) that must have been incredible a week or two ago.  Between that route and the park around the castle that was full of cherry trees, I will definately be there for hanami (flower viewing) if I am still in this area next year.  Forget Kyoto and the crowds, I'm sure this will be as, if not more, beautiful and a lot less crowded and more natural.

I stopped at a couple of roadside vegatable markets and picked up a few goodies - of the healthy and not so healthy variety and had a strawberry ice cream cone for lunch while watching some people fishing in a little harbor area.  My grandfather (Sid) would have loved all these lakeside towns.  There are tons of rivers and people just put their simple fishing poles in the rivers or lakes (that are a few blocks at the most from where they live) whenever they have free time - just like Grandpa, although he had to get to the beach.  Most of the fishing here is for ayu, which I just looked up and it says it's freshwater trout but they are really small so I'm not sure that's right...

Back to Nagahama.  On the way back I rode up an down a few small roads in very small towns/neighborhoods, through rice paddies which have already been flooded, listening to the frogs singing - I love that!

The towns were nice old fashioned affairs with narrow streets, lots of wooden buildings and shutters, and big gardens.  Interestingly, here they plant both vegetables and flowers (which is what I would do if I could).  Where we are in California it's just flowers, in Tokushima it's pretty much just vegetables. 

On the way to the center I had passed a 'sports complex' and park but it was on the other side of the road and there wasn't a good place to cross. On the way back I was on that side so I meandered through. Besides the actually complex there was a huge playground, a pond, and a forested walking path (that reminded me a little of Lassen Volcano State Park. Very nice, I wonder if a bus goes there from the station so I can go again when Haruto visits in the summer.

This is (dead/dried) renkon - lotus root.

I do love red bikes...this is my rental.

I decided to take a detour on my way back to the station to see a shrine that looked pretty substantial on the map.  I didn't get lost but couldn't find it - turns out the sign, which I might not have understood anyway, was facing the opposite direction.  I was pretty sure I had passed it so I popped into a convenience store to ask and the young woman pointed me back in the direction from which I had come.  On the way I saw a young mom with a couple of little boys, and since I still didn't see the shrine I asked her.  She started to point it out but then said that since she was going that way we would walk together.  It was a nice little shrine but not enough to take one from the lakeside route back to the station.  

Look at that twisty pine tree behind/above the gate.

I made the best of it by taking the small roads through rice paddies where there were birds of all kinds - those kites or hawks waiting on phone lines to grab whatever might be unearthed by the tractors that were raking the mud, cranes and egrets pulling their long legs out of the mud and water, and various smaller birds looking for bugs or tadpoles I guess.  

After a while I had to stop and ask for directions, three times actually, even though I had a map - I am definately missing the navigation gene - but eventually I made it back to the station.  And I was going in basically the right direction for a change.  I was exhausted after about 16 miles of biking.  The weather had been perfect though and it was so nice to be outside in the sunshine for the day.

In the morning I had stopped at the tourist information booth and bought a 'passport' that could be used to see 5 sites in Nagahama.  But the woman and I were talking about so many things she forgot to take my money, and I was trying to remember so much information I forgot to give it.  I was hoping she'd still be there, and she was, and evidently she hadn't realized what had happened.  She was so surprised/grateful that I had come back (it was no big deal since I had to leave from the station anyway) that she insisted I take some chocolate cookies and a coke (which someone had given her that day).  I told her it was not at all necessary but she insisted.

The passport is good through the year so I'm sure I'll get my money's worth.  The next time I go, I will probably stick to walking around Nagahama itself as I can see more that way and it's evidently a very walkable town.  I'm looking forward to it, since I enjoyed the little I saw.  Just need another nice day!

When I got back to Hikone I went out the exit on the opposite side of the tracks because I'd read that there was a Sushi Rou near the big Aeon mall that I haven't been to yet.   I was so tired I almost didn't go, but I was also hungry, so I walked around and eventually found it.  I was surprised that they didn't have many of the same items they have in Tokushima.  Since it's a big chain I thought it would be the same.  After getting over that dissapointment - there was something I was particularly looking forward to having - I had a nice little dinner, went back through the station (the only way to get over the tracks), retrieved my bike and rode past my castle and home.  I was surprised and happy that my leg muscles were not screaming by that time.

I soaked in the tub, ate dessert (ichigo daifuku - a strawberry surrounded by some sweet white bean paste and then mochi - one of my favorites) and then tried to stay away until a reasonable time...

Today is rainy again but I need to bike to Viva City and clear up a billing question with my phone.  If I take the bus I would have to be there for 4 hours and there is not that much to do.  So time to get dressed and out.