Hikone is where we spent most of our time in Japan.  Even if it wasn't a big city by any means, there was still a lot to see and do there.  This picture is of Jessica taking in the view from Hikone castle.

Hikone castle is a really beautiful castle.  It's not a large castle but unlike Nijo castle in Kyoto it's main building is built up much higher, probably because it's located on a hill.  But I think the castles that are build high like that are really beautiful, and even if Nijo was big it was quite squat.  Well, maybe I'm just dissing Nijo castle because it was raining all day when I was there and I forgot my umbrealla.  In any case, the top middle picture is of Xavier checking out the view just before entering the main castle building.  The photo on the top right is, obviously, of some stairs.  But they were really beautiful stairs as I think I remarked when I saw them and was inspired to phtograph them.  The castle's main building had a small exhibit of old artifacts and history of the castle, so sensei decided to spend some time and check it out.  The picture in the middle is of clean wall and the picture on the bottom left is an impressive moss-covered wall the castle was built on.  As a little aside, going up the stairs was a lot easier on my legs than going down... maybe because they were really steep and it's hard to go down steep stairs.  Oh, and speaking of steep stairs, I did a real dumb thing on my way down the stairs (that were more like ladders) inside the castle: I had my camera bag in back of me and I didn't realize that as I was going down the stairs it was turning upside down.  I figured the thing would be closed, but apparently it wasn't and one of my lenses and my flash fell out.  Nothing was damaged at all but I held up traffic and made an idiot of myself... oh well.  No harm done, I suppose.

Japan was a very green country, not like how Michigan is green or Ireland is green (although I've never been there so I don't know how green it really is), but it's like the light coming through and bouncing off the trees in certain spots just gives everything a beautiful greenness.  I really liked spending time at the shrine right down the street from JCMU because of all the trees and plants surrounding it.  The gardens were really nice, too, and I really appreciated the garden in Hikone castle... probably because it wasn't raining when I was there and because there was hardly anybody around.  So, here are some photos of the garden at Hikone castle.

It's a really nice garden.  Let's see... as for the top row: the first one is a view of Hikone castle from across the garden's pond.  The middle photo is me in front of a building in the garden wearing a goofy wind breaker ('cause I thought it might rain... it didn't, but at least it was cold so wearing that thing was justified).  The right photo is just a nice meditative kind of shot of a nice rock in the pond.  The middle row: Steve making a video tape of the garden from a nice bridge over the pond.  Next to that is a closeup of a maple that was hanging over the pond near the bridge.  And the last photo is Amanda coming up one of the paths in the garden.

...the frustrating thing about photographs is that it's hard to get the whole picture.  Or at least, maybe I feel like I'm missing something from all of my photos.  Or maybe I haven't spent enough time looking at my photos.  I spent a long time taking in the scenery in that garden and I guess maybe I'm just frustrated that I my pictures don't tell the whole story.  But maybe they do and I'm just not looking hard enough...  Anyway, that garden was really a beautiful place.  There also seemed to be a lot more maple trees in Japan than in the States... or maybe the Japanese like to use maples for certain purposes when it comes to gardens and shrines.  But looking at the picture of all those tiny maple leaves is really interesting to me.  Heck, for all I know maybe I just really like maples.

The weather was pretty wacky for most of the time I spent in Japan.  One day it'd be sunny and warm, the next two it'd be cold and maybe raining.  I think it rained for two or three days straight once, which probably isn't such a strange thing, but I wondered how wet the rainy season got?  Apparently there's a period in the early summer in Japan where it just rains non-stop for something like a month.  Even if it isn't hard rain, it's still soggy all over the place.  I guess the closest thing Michigan has to that is mid spring, when all those storms bring rain every other day sometimes.  Well, I guess I'm no expert on Michigan weather, so I can't really provide any more insight than my apparent observations.

I guess I don't really have a whole lot of pictures of Hikone that are really good.  By that I mean Hikone the city, not Hikone castles or temples and shrines and gardens.  There were some days I just didn't feel like taking my camera with me, which is unfortunate considering what I ended up seeing that I can only describe.  And no, I never really saw anything really strange or freaky or silly, it's just that I like to document what I see with photos and I didn't get photos of certain things.  For instance, I was exploring Hikone on my bike and I ended up riding through a neighborhood.  There's something I should say about the way Japan plans its cities before I continue: normally hills and mountains aren't heavily developed.  Since there are a lot of hills and mountains in Japan it doesn't leave too much space for cities.  Hikone is far from being a big city, and Kyoto really isn't too big when certain things are taken into consideration, but houses in neighborhoods in Hikone are very close together.  Often it doesn't really feel like there's any space at all for cars at certain parts.  I really appreciated this aspect of Japan: there is a lot of undeveloped space that is saved because the cities don't sprawl out forever with gigantic houses with huge lawns and swimming pools.  Actually, I don't ever remember seeing a lawn on anybody's house.  People had small gardens and potted plants, but no lawns.  I really liked that, and somehow I felt right at home biking through the side-streets.

So, keep in mind that there's a lot I saw that I didn't photograph.  But I did take pictures at a place called Ryotan-ji in Hikone that was really pretty.

Ryotan-ji is a Zen Buddhist temple right under a nice mountain that I missed the opportunity to hike (because I fell asleep in the TV room and nobody knew where I was to wake me up).  Since it's a Zen Buddhis temple it had very beautiful gardens, and I think I could have spent the whole afternoon there watching the rain fall on the gardens.  Walking through the temple, there were several artifacts from Hikone's past.  Apparently the site for the temple had been designated probably when Hikone was very young.  There were statues of the father of the lord who had the castle built, the cart he rode in, a suit of armor (but not a particularly important set because of it's design), and those funny wood or paper statues (I think they were paper, but I don't really know) that I believe are supposed to represent monks.  Somebody can correct me on that one, though.  And of course there were certain bushes to which people would tie their prayers.  A very nice, traditional kind of spot kind of on the outside of town.

One thing I should note is that if I hadn't fallen asleep, I could have gone hiking and passed the castle ruins on top of that mountain over Ryotan-ji.  I guess there really isn't much left because I'm sure most of the materials were used in building the current castle.  I guess that's kind of a shame, though, because it would be really impressive to see a bunch of overgrown walls and buildings that the mountain forest reclaimed.  Oh well, it happens to every civilization: Romans took pieces of the Coliseum, Egyptians took the stone shells of the pyramids... everything gets built over and destoyed, to a certain extent, for the purpose of advancement.  I guess it's just part of life.  But there even the stuff that was burnt down and rebuilt in Japan is older than just about anything in America, so I guess there's no comparison.

And finally, one of the greatest places that was really close to JCMU was this little shrine built on a hill.  I don't remember the name, but it's really pretty.

It's a beautiful little place.  There's a bamboo thicket that leads to a small stone shrine with a beautiful mon or gate in front.  To the other side is where the shrine goes up the hill.  There are a bunch of old stone stairs to climb, then you reach the main level.  Well, that's all I can figure out to call it, at least.  It's where the big buildings of the complex are, where I suppose they keep supplies and hold events.  Then you can either stroll around there for a while and notice a lot of the little details that make the place great, or you can take a bare path to some really steep stairs that go to the top of the hill where there is another small monument and you can get a great view of the city.  It's not the side of the hill that looks over JCMU, but it's still a neat view.  It's a very nice place, and I think it was completely the best thing that we got to live in close proximity to such a neat place.

I suppose that's about all I have from photos around Hikone.  The city is pretty small as far as Japanese cities go, but it's still a neat place.  And I think the one of the things I'm going to miss is riding my bike everywhere.  I had some good times and some bad times on that bike, and we went through a lot together.  I even mangled up the basket when I crashed my bike the first day.  Yep, that bike was a true friend.  I think I'll have to get me a bike with a basket some time so I can relive the experience.

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