Hikone 1st kanji: "hiko"=
2nd kanji: "ne"=
say: He-co-nay
My "old hometown" of Hikone was kind of on our way back to Numazu, so I took Jeremy there to show him where I usued to live.  I had hoped to show him JCMU, the school were I studied for two months last summer, but we ended up with not enough time (and no way to get there, really).
However, we did get to see Hikone-jo (castle) and meet up with a friend of mine from JCMU, who is now an ALT in Hikone--Doug.  Maybe you've read a bit of his blog, linked on my sites? (:

We met at the station, and first went to Doug's apartment to stow our suitcase somewhere.  His place was pretty nice.  He has three rooms, instead of two like me--but I think our entire apartments are about equal in floorspace.  Doug, however, has a couch. :P  No fair!  I COULD get one, but I really don't have room for it--unless I'd plan on sleeping on it.  Oh well.

We walked to Hikone-jo after that.  Hikone-jo is like Himeji-jo, pretty much untouched (except for maintainence stuff) inside, and is pretty much original I think.  But... it's smaller.  A lot smaller. (:  But that doesn't make it a whole lot less prettier.  (:  Just less impressive, perhaps.  Hikone-jo is still one of my favorite Japanese castles, of the five I've visited.  (:

So here is Hikone-jo, to the left.  It's only about three stories tall, but it's still very pretty. (:
Both of these pictures were taken on the grounds just outside of the castle.  There is a lookout spot at one end of the grounds, and you can see over Hikone from there.  (picture at right)  The lake at the right is Lake Biwa, Japan's largest freshwater lake (it still doesn't compare to any of Michigan's...)  At the bottom of the picture, you can see the play/sportsground of one of Hikone's schools, and some low mountains in the background.  See the tall white building near the center of the photo, where the mountain tapers to the ground?  That's the Prince Hotel, which was right next to my school, JCMU!  It is the green-roofed building to the right of it. (:  Anywhere we traveled along Lake Biwa, we would look for the Prince Hotel and we would know where 'home' was! (:  It was neat.
After poking around the castle, we went poking around the garden.  I had visited Hikone-jo once before, but somehow skipped the garden.  It's too bad I did!  It was really pretty.  (:  It's a shame I've only walked around it once.  To the left is a picture I took from the garden.  There was a small pond weaving its way around several small islands, with little stone bridges making a path all over.  You can see Hikone-jo looming in the background. (:  I wonder what it would have looked like if I had thought to visit during the summer...?
Well, that's about all the pictures I took of Hikone... I have a TON more from last summer on that stupid CD I left at home. :P  Sorry.  Not that exciting anyway. (:  After the garden, we wandered to the 'mall' of Hikone, Viva City, to do some shopping and get some lunch.  After that, we tried to find this really awesome bookstore called 'Book Off' but we didn't have much luck... It's been over a year since I biked my way to Book Off, and Doug wasn't sure he'd been to that particular one I was looking for before... so we kind of didn't make it. :P  But that's okay!  I have plenty of manga... I don't need (much) more... (:

After that, we headed back to the station.  Jeremy's suitcase was on it's last leg... er, wheel... when we arrive in Hikone.  We must have bumped it down too many stairs because one wheel gave out on us.  He was kind of half rolling, half dragging the thing to Doug's place.  We decided we'd like to get his suitcase delivered through this nation-wide package delievery service Japan has (it's SO convenient!), so we wouldn't have to drag it back to Numazu.  Well, it was just a few days after New Years, so all the places that had this delivery service pick-up station were closed!  Luckily we found a hotel!  I asked for the service and the lady said, 'okay' and asked where the bag was.  I said it was at my friend's... and she said we would have to bring it here, that he couldn't pick it up... Ugh.  So Jeremy and Doug went off in a rush to get the back while I filled out the paperwork and etc.  About ten mintues later the lady asked me how much longer they'd be... Turns out the delivery guy was waiting for us!  Eep!  I said maybe ten more minutes... estimating a little high... and then paced around the lobby, glancing outsie from time to time.  At one point I finally saw them!  Hooray!  Jeremy and Doug were rushing up with the suitcase between them, each holding one end of it!  So we got it there, and got it sent, and made our train.  Whew.  I'm pretty sure we dropped dead from exhaustion as soon as we got back to my room in Numazu. (:
Vacation #2!
Kyoto