In Hikone

I am typing this as I sit upstairs in Mr. Uno's bedroom in his home. Here's how it happened (have I piqued your interest? :)

Three stops ago we met Dasi at a guest house in Kanazawa up north. She persuaded us to visit her town of Hikone north of Kyoto on the largest lake in Japan. She said her house was too small (and she has a rabbit!) but we could stay at her friend's house, Mr. Uno. So yesterday we arrived around 10:30 at the station and she was there to meet us. She's a former teacher so she had the day planned. We walked to a temple dedicated to a woman monk (nun) who had died 33 years ago. She was in a reclining position (her statue) and you could put a coin on the body part of her that YOU wanted healed (I put coins on her knees which are hurting from over 30 days of constant touring!) Betty is having a problem with one leg that keeps her awake at night and aches so she put her coin there. We met and took a picture with the monk in charge of this small temple who had been a monk for 40 years. He had not met this nun but heard about her. It was a lovely little temple.

We then continued to walk to the main attraction - the castle that had been moved here in the 1500s and set up as a home for a samurai warlord, it sounded like. The area used to have more water around it but had been filled in around the castle to make more farmland. There was a strange "cat" who was a mascot of Hikone (and you saw dolls and pictures of him everywhere in town) who would appear at 1:30 in the courtyard outside the castle. I was expecting a real cat, I guess. But this guy in a cat suit with a Japanese battle helmet with red and orange, the Ii family's colors, and two horns, appeared. People, mostly adults, waved and laughed and took hundreds of photos of this guy. Dasi said since his adoption as the mascot of Hikone, tourists have increased by 200,000 at this site.

We then climbed the 3 levels of the castle. No tatami mates in sight. She said it was because it was a samurai  family home so they always had armor, etc. on wide wooden floorboards, huge ceiling beams that looked like tree trunks and VERY steep stairs up and down. We told Dasi that in America they wouldn't even allow tourists in such a place for fear of lawsuits if someone fell. I have to catch the train to the station to get our stored luggage, then another train to Maibara to catch the bullet train for Tokyo.

So I'll have to finish the story of Mr. Uno later! Stay tuned!