Saturday, 26 October. I took a three-mile run before breakfast. The weather was cool and overcast, and it rained for a short time. Tom's friend, Tenda-san, who runs an antique shop, dropped by to meet us. He brought some vegetables for Kyoko, and we gave him a box of candy we'd brought from the States.

There was a steady rain in the afternoon. Jane and I had planned to go to the Gion Corner in the evening. That's the performance we had decided to postponed at the last minute on the 14th. But Jane wasn't feeling very well so, between that and the weather, we canceled our plans. It turned out that we never did get to see the performance.

Sunday, 27 October. Tom and Kyoko had an all-day bonsai club meeting and show, so Jane and I planned an excursion to Omi-Hachiman on our own. Omi-Hachiman is on the southeast side of Lake Biwa, a little closer than Hikone Castle that we had visited on the 21st. The town was founded by a feudal lord in 1585 and was noted for its prosperous merchants.

We took the train from Sakamoto about 10:00 and had to change trains at Kamashina. To be safe, I asked (mostly using gestures) if this was the right train to Omi-Hachiman and was assured that it was. Once on the train, I asked another woman, and she indicated (actually using three or four words of English) that there was some kind of problem. It turned out that the train we were on only went as far as Yasu, the stop before Omi-Hachiman, so we had to get off there and continue on the next train.

Merchant's house (Museum)

We arrived in Omi-Hachiman at 11:15 and took a taxi to the Municipal Museum, situated adjacent to one of the town's oldest streets (Shin-machi). It is made up of two distinct museums. The Local Artifacts Museum, housed in a western-style former police station, exhibits many tools, household items, and other artifacts from throughout the town's history. The History and Folklore Museum next door is housed in an early 19th century merchant's residence with a small garden.

 

Old street & buildings Darrell in Nishikawa house

 

Leaving the museum, we walked down the old street, flanked by centuries-old buildings. Most of these had been storehouses, but one was the house of a wealthy merchant (Nishikawa). It had a somewhat larger garden than the other house we'd seen.

 

Exposed lattice & mud structure

We continued up the old street until we came to the canal that once separated the samurai residential area from that of the merchants and craftsmen. The canal also connects the town with Lake Biwa. We passed an old building whose deteriorating condition exposed the structure of the walls, bamboo lattice covered with dried mud. This was a common method of construction, used even in the walls around the Imperial Palace in Kyoto.

We stopped at an old wooden bridge and watched the small boats going to and from Lake Biwa. We continued along the canal to the bridge leading to the Mt. Hachiman ropeway (cable car).  There is a temple at the top, as well as the ruins of the Hachiman Castle (1585), but we decided not to go up. Unlike the old section we'd just left, this street was crowded with people in a holiday mood. A large tea house was filled to capacity.

Jane on old wooden bridge

Boat in canal

Hachiman-bori Canal

After walking a short way up this street, we turned back and crossed the bridge into the main part of town. We passed the Haku-un House (1877), a large, western-style building, originally a high school. We walked down some of the narrow side street of the old section until we were ready to call it a day. Then we realized that we'd never find a taxi in this area. We saw a busy street about three blocks away and headed for that. While it had a lot of traffic, there were no taxis. We walked a few more blocks. Finally, we saw a bus approaching just as we were passing a bus stop. There were two women there, and I asked them if the bus went to the train station. They said it did and we hopped on the bus.

By now, it was nearly 2:00 and we still hadn't had lunch. As we got off the bus at the train station, we spotted a McDonald's a few steps away and had lunch there. The train was already in the station when we reached the platform, and we just got on board before the doors closed. We were back at Tom's about 3:15. That evening the four of us walked to the Joyful family restaurant for dinner. It reminded me very much of the Friendly restaurant chain in the U.S.