Nagahama and Maibara are home to tourist attractions such as Kurokabe Square, Kurokabe Glass Museum, Nagahama Castle, Kaiyodo Figure Museum Kurokabe, Nagahama Railway Square, Ibukiyama, Samegaijuku (Samegai-juku), Tokugenin Temple, Maibara City Omi Hanewakan, and Samegai Gorge.
Also recommended are local delicacies such as grilled mackerel somen noodles, salad bread from Tsuruya Bread, funazushi, Omi rice, and Omi beef.
Featuring an emotionally rich townscape with a series of Japanese-style buildings from the Edo and Meiji periods, Kurokabe Square is an attractive area with a collection of museums, galleries, glass studios and other cultural facilities, restaurants, and cafes, all of which make use of traditional a...»
Located in Kurokabe Square, the Kurokabe Glass Museum is a glass art gallery. The building is housed in the Nagahama branch of the National Bank of Japan 130th Bank, built in 1900 and characterized by its wooden storehouse structure. It was affectionately known as "Kurokabe Bank" because of its blac...»
This is Japan's first museum specializing in figure exhibitions. The museum exhibits over 4,000 figures produced by KAIYODO, a world-famous figure manufacturer, over a period of more than 40 years. The museum offers a dreamlike world of dinosaurs, animal figures, nature figures, hero and robot figu...»
Ibukiyama Driveway is a 17-km long sightseeing toll road that climbs up to the ninth station of Mount Ibuki (1,377 meters above sea level), the highest peak in Shiga Prefecture. The entrance is located at the Ibukiyamaguchi intersection about 3 km up Route 365 from the Sekigahara IC of the Meishin ...»
Chikubushima is a mysterious island of faith located off the northern shore of Lake Biwa. Since ancient times, Asaihime-no-mikoto has been enshrined here and worshipped as a water goddess and as a deity that protects the safe passage of ships. Even today, Chikubujima is home to Hogonji Temple, whic...»
Hogonji Temple on Chikubujima is the oldest temple on Chikubujima, and its principal deity is the Great Benzaiten, one of the "Three Benzaiten Temples of Japan" along with Enoshima and Miyajima. It is the 30th temple of the 33 sacred sites of the 33 Kannon temples in the western part of Japan. The ...»
Tsukubusuma Shrine is located on Chikubushima Island in Lake Biwa. Also called Chikubushima Shrine, the deity is Chikubushima itself. There are several theories about the deity, but the four deities are Ichikishima-hime (Benzaiten), Ugafukujin, Ryujin (Dragon God), and Asai-hime. Asai Hime-no-mikot...»
Located in the northernmost part of Lake Biwa along the Shiotsu Bypass on National Route 8, this roadside station offers delicious local cuisine and local specialties. Located in the northernmost part of Lake Biwa, this area, also called Oku-Biwako, offers beautiful nature in each of the four seaso...»
A hot pot dish of magamo (sometimes ahiru or aigamo) which fly into the Biwa Lake, simmered with tofu and vegetables such as negi. Magamo in early winter are fatty and tasty with chewy texture and sweet fatty meats as they are going through a cold hard winter. As a saying “kamo is coming with negi o...»
Mallard ducks from the Biwako lake area are used for this dish, a representative food of Kohoku area, Shiga prefecture. It is popular as a winter dish between November and February. The ducks become fit and fatty as the weather gets cold, and their springy texture, the sweet fat unique to ducks, and...»