Day 17 - Exploring Shiga's Lake Biwa & Rice Terraces

We woke up on Tuesday morning excited to do our first guided tour of the trip, a very special experience in nearby Omi-Takashima where we would cycle around lake Biwa before visiting the nearby rice fields and eating lunch with a local family. The morning dawned cool and windy, so we bundled up in our warmest clothes and ate a quick breakfast at Inase before heading to the train station to catch a short 30 minute ride north to Omi-Takashima where we would meet our guide Keiko-san.

Lauren and I, saddled up on our bikes.

Upon arrival, Keiko-san and her partner Hiromi-san were waiting at the train station with bicycles and helmets ready to go, in addition to the very thoughtful addition of gloves and chemical hot packs for the cold weather. Lauren gladly accepted both, while I availed myself of some gloves before getting our bikes adjusted. I was given the largest size bike possible, but it was still much too short, so it was a little bit like an adult riding a child's bicycle, though Lauren's fit her fairly well. Keiko-san led us away from the train station towards the nearby lakeshore, where we stopped at a small shrine to see the remains of a giant oak tree before continuing our ride a couple of kilometers down the lake to Shirahige-jinja shrine, which is famous for a large Torii gate in the water, as well as the shrine itself which overlooks the lakeshore. We sat on the steps down to the water for a few minutes, relaxing and enjoying the view before crossing a relatively busy highway to get to the shrine.

Keiko-san gave us a walking tour of the shrine and instructed us in how to properly approach the shrines themselves, while Hiromi-san took a few photos before we stopped and offered us some hot tea and rice snacks. From Shirahige-jinja, we rode back the way we had came, though instead of following the lake shore, we rode up the hill slightly to visit an ancient gravesite with incredibly old Bhudda carvings.

From the gravesite, we veered further in land across a pond covered in wood walkways and near many beautiful sakura trees before stopping at the ruins of an old castle, which at this point was just a pile of large stones. We took a couple of photos here, and then rode back to town to tour a sake distillery that has been open for more than 200 years where Lauren and I got to taste about 7 different sake offerings, all with their own unique taste.

The sake we purchased

Lauren really enjoyed their best sake, a Junmai Daiginjo, so we purchased a bottle to take back with us before moving on. We were now quickly approaching late morning, so we headed back to the train station to catch a bus into the countryside, where we would be visiting the rice terraces and eating lunch with a local family. Our bus left just after noon, and took about 30 minutes to get us into a rather remote area of the mountains that was covered in tiered rice fields, beautiful traditional Japanese homes, and massive cedar trees.

Lauren and I on the way out of the Hayashi's home.

We walked about 5 minutes up the hill until we reached the home where we would be hosted by the Hayashi family. Mr and Mrs. Hayashi are a retired couple in their 80's who live in a gorgeous home in the Shiga countryside with its own rice fields. Mrs. Hayashi greeted us at their door and welcomed us in, immediately seating us at a table and offering some hot green tea. Shortly thereafter, Mr. Hayashi greeted us and we were led back to the kitchen, where we would help prepare our own lunch. With Keiko-san and Lauren interpreting for me, I was instructed in grinding some sesame seeds for our spinach salad before Mrs. Hayashi took me under her wing and tasked me with being her assistant as we made vegetable tempura.

Lauren and I with Mr. and Mrs. Hayashi

Making tempura consists of dredging the vegetables in a batter made of water and tempura flour (flour with baking soda), before gently placing them into hot canola oil using chopsticks. I was given my own pair of chopsticks and from what I could interpret, asked to flip the vegetables as required and remove them when cooked. The process of making the tempura took about 10 minutes, as we cooked up a whole variety of vegetables including Japanese Yam, carrot and onion, butterbur, and some other leafy greens. Once the Tempura was finished, we were invited to the kitchen table where Mrs. Hayashi was preparing a shabu shabu pot, which is basically a water infused with konbu seaweed that is used to boil and cook vegetables and meat or tofu. These cooked items are then placed into dipping sauces (usually ponzu and green onion) before being eaten.

Our shabu shabu was tofu, leeks, enoki mushrooms and shimeji mushrooms with a ponzu and green onion dipping sauce. This was all accompanied by our previously prepared spinach salad and tempura, some pickles, and rice that the Hayashi family grows on their own land.

The Hayashi family's marriage kimono.

A decoration in the Hayashi's home.

Mr. Hayashi is particularly proud (rightfully so) of his beautiful garden.

After an hour of stuffing our faces and enjoying some lovely conversation about the differences between our cultures, the Hayashi's offered a tour of their home, and kindly showed us their family heirloom kimonos, photos and the beautiful tatami rooms that make up their home. We finished up with another cup of green tea, before being walked through their beautiful traditional Japanese garden up to their rice fields, where Mr. Hayashi explained how the flood the field using a small stream that is diverted using wood blocks.

The rice terraces were very beautiful

These cedar trees are easily 3+ meters in circumference. Massive!

After the tour, we bid our generous hosts goodbye, and walked up the hill a little further with Keiko-san to explore some larger rice terraces and visit a nearby shrine with ancient cedar trees that are nearly the size of the California redwoods. Lauren and I took some photos here, and we all walked back down the hill to catch a cab back to Omi-takashima station, where we caught our train home for a quiet evening.