potted plum trees

It’s about 1 hour train ride from Kyoto station to Nagahama located at the northern end Lake Biwa, the biggest lake in Japan, in Shiga Prefecture. Just one hour ride takes us to snow-country... but it wasn’t when I went there.
At least I saw Mt. Ibuki covered with snow, it looked beautiful but it wasn’t close enough to make me feel that I had come to snow-country.

a day trip to Shiga: a party with local specialities

Our original plan was having a barbecue at our friend’s garden and later visiting Kaigake-dani(鎌掛谷) which is a valley full of rhododendron(ホンシャクナゲ). Unfortunately the weather didn’t let us follow our plan, it started raining.

We had to put off visiting Kaigake-dani till next year and instead of having had barbecue in her garden we enjoyed local foods inside.

The old name of Shiga prefecture is “Omi” (近江). The region neighbours Kyoto and its population has increased as the commuting time to Osaka and Kyoto has decreased. Some of the area is still heavily cultivated and is the home of “Omi beef” (近江牛) which is one of the best known brands of marbled beef as well as “Omi-mai” a well-known type of rice.

I’m personally not a fan of beef, especially the marbled beef which I think too fatty, but I thought I should try what the locals recommended, usually they know best. Unexpectedly the beef was good and made me realise that it isn’t as bad as I thought. This area is also well-know for pork. We had miso marinated pork grilled on a charcoal fire, which was delicious.

Our friend had served us many local delicacies. This is one of them. This is a once a year festival dish from her area, but she was kind enough to have made it especially for us out of season. The fish is a sea bream with “somen”, thin noodles. We have somen in my area, but it’s never served with seafood.

We also had a pork “shabu-shabu” hot pot. I don’t know how we managed to finish it all.

"Gochisosama-deshita."

a day trip to Shiga: a serene boat tour

Omihachiman, Shiga Pref.
近江八幡水郷めぐり(滋賀/近江八幡)

During the holiday I went on a boat ride tour at Omihachiman in Shiga prefecture with friends.


The boat is long and narrow, only 8 seats with a boatman. There are 3 or 4 companies run similar tours and some use boats with engine, which I imagine might be rather noisy.We were recommended to take an old style boat tour by someone who knows the area pretty well and we were thankful we did.



The tour took 90 minutes and started on a canal. The boat soon went into a river which skirts Omihachiman. The river broadened in front of us and we could only hear the sound of nature, frogs, birds, wind and water. It was absolutely calm and pleasant.


The town is only 40 minutes train ride from Kyoto and what we experienced was very different from Kyoto. This space and quietness is hard to find in this area. It was a very good day-out.


He is our boatman, in his 70’s, and had started the job after his retirement and is surprisingly fit for his age. He told us the tour runs all year round showing the seasonal changes. Planting rice has just finished and the water from paddy fields made the river water muddy and unclear this time of the year. The river and canal used to be the area’s major artery and families had their own boats in the past.

Although some of us would have liked to visit the well-known old merchant town of Omihachiman, we had to leave without doing so due to our barbecue party planned for the afternoon.

Sakura at a temple

The Lake Biwa Canal flows into Kyoto from Lake Biwa.

It is a popular destination for sakura viewing

on both the Shiga and Kyoto sides.