Hikone castle
Today was one of the biggest failures in all my travelling history. I got up at 5:45am to get the early train around lake Biwa, connecting to a local train to Omi-Nagaoka, where I ran for 6km to get to the start of a long hike up Mount Ibuki. It was going to be about a 24km day, and the highest mountain on this trip. It was a hike I had done before only that time I approached the mountain from Gifu city, I enjoyed it very much.
So I ran up the familiar road past the shrine only to arrive at a whole heap of signs advising that the hike was closed due to landslide, since July, with no plans to reopen, and also 'a bear is coming'. I was already 2 hours into this adventure and had run 6km to the middle of nowhere. At first I did not believe it so I walked around looking for another entrance, of which there were none. I still did not believe it so I loaded up and translated Yamap, the Japanese hiking site, and only 3 people (as far as I could tell) had climbed it since the landslide and all 3 said it was foolish and suggested not to try it. So that was the end of that. I walked slowly back down to the station looking on my phone for where to go to instead. As it turns out, the next town over has an original castle.
So... a day of failure turned into another castle day. A lot of castles on this trip and another one tomorrow too. I suspect most people prefer castle pics to hiking pics, but now I am over fuelled and over rested!
This is Maibara station where I changed from a JR west train, using my pass, to a JR central train, using my IC card. It is actually a Shinkansen station even though it is a small place.
This is the view from the station at Omi-Nagaoka. A big mountain. Weather was good. I was excited.
Getting closer to it on my run up from the station. That enclosed roadway is a conveyor with quarry materials coming down from the side of the mountain.
FAIL. I do not really believe the bear sign, after a few hundred metres of forest it is ski fields and than a bald mountain. I think the bear sign is mainly there to assist in discouraging people (like me) considering ignoring the warnings. Yamap had an explanation that it was due to a large landslide following heavy rains in July and much of the trail no longer exists.
Time to head back down to the station and start thinking about what to do next. Those mountains are small and far away.
A nice view across the farmers fields on my lonely walk back to the station. I remembered this bit, it is an old train line that used to go to the closed mountain ski fields.
One last look at Mount Ibuki...
One stop south of Maibara, is Hikone. A bigger place, sun had come out by now.
This is a grave stone making factory. Everyone wants a be-horned helmet wearing kitten as their grave marker.
Approaching the castle, swans appeared.
A castle boat! Patrolling the moat looking for marauders.
This is an original castle, not a re-creation made out of concrete. Well maybe not this bit, it has glass windows.
But it has an area to buy capsule toys.
Quite a small castle, smaller than Matsuyama. $8 entry fee.
You have to take your shoes off and carry them in the plastic bag they give you. Which is a health and safety disaster, because you have to climb steep ladders, while holding a bag full of your shoes. Thus making it impossible to always maintain 3 points of contact. Also that sign saying this is a good view spot was no joke...
View from the view spot, which is actually not a great view compared to every other direction.
But other than that one window spot, every other window is covered in chicken wire, to keep out enemy chickens. That is lake Biwa.
Here is the inside of the top level of the castle. The wood is allegedly 400 years old or thereabouts. As far as I could tell, not one had recently carved their name into it.
The elevated grounds around the castle are quite nice. Still no real leaf colour! Which reminds me, back near the castle entrance a guy was using an electric leaf blower, powered by a petrol generator.
A bit more Lake Biwa on the left, but also a very large stadium, seems way too large for a town like Hikone.
I descended down past the high walls.
The ticket also lets you into this garden, quite a good garden.
Genkyuen garden. Note the castle in the background.
Another one with a bit more castle.
And so there you go, when the hike cannot be done, the next town over has a castle and garden as a backup plan.
Kyoto station area
I forgot to go to the helicopter pad on the top.
I like the Kyoto station, it is very modern and vertical, with a roof garden, which I forgot to go to. Maybe I will go there when I am too early for my train back to Tokyo.
Somehow despite missing my hike today I still ended up with 36k steps, super boring fact I know, but it was surprising to me. So tonight I just wandered down the central street to the Kyoto station, tried to find my dinner, realised it was too busy, and then headed around to the back of the station.
There are large groups of Australians here, travelling in groups, old and young and a mix of both. Quite unusual. Also I just learned that less than 20% of Japanese people have a valid passport! Even in the USA, 37% of people have a valid passport, Australian's hate being in Australia, so 57% of Australian's have a valid passport. The reason most Japanese people give for not travelling overseas is, other countries are too frightening. No wonder they won't sit next to me on the train.
While I am talking about nonsense, I also just read that for the first time, some drugs will not need to be re-tested on a control group of people with pure Japanese blood before they can be administered in Japan. Up until now, and even during COVID trials, there was a belief that 'pure' Japanese people were somehow a different species to the non pures. With members of parliament openly stating that the pandemic would be no match for superior Japanese blood. That did not turn out how they expected and has now resulted in policy change.
So to explain all this, let me just leave this here - 'The solution was the Humanity Declaration. This was an announcement issued by the Meiji emperor Hirohito on the first of January 1946, in which he denied any and all claim to divinity, asserted his status as a human being, and debunked the idea that the Japanese held a holy mandate to rule he world'.
I remember the gates to this shrine near the station being open at night. Maybe I have developed additional false memories. Also, giant pink phallus, that I remember.
The clapping monkey with cymbals seems to be the top selling toy of the 2023 season. Not even joking.
My busted camera is still not buy-able anywhere. Not for at least another 3 months.
The place to go to not get a camera, but to get a clapping cymbal monkey is of course the giant Yodobashi.
The underground shopping centre has a great eating street, but all places I was interested in had big lines.
Not everywhere was busy though! I followed an emergency exit staircase into the station and found myself near the top with this long alleyway of nothingness.
I headed around the back of the station, when the words Aeon and Mall come together, that spells food court.
There is no point in modern history (post Humanity Declaration) when every shopping centre in all of Asia has not been renewed and undergoing a grand open. As far as I can tell it has not changed in a decade.
Top floor food court has a great place with 3 big model railroads. This one is a model of Kyoto station, so meta, with the giant phallus.
I found the food court. Not just a food court but a Food Garden. I was excited.
All the best food comes on brown trays? Hmm perhaps not tonight. I got Tsukemen, something I have not had before, which is basically deconstructed ramen. Noodles are cold, the soup you dunk in is dense and hot. It is ramen you have to work for. I ended up just mixing it all together, how very uncultured.
Tomorrow, more castles, as was the plan all along, today's castle, was not part of the plan.