IN A NUTSHELL: The Stairs of Doom
Hikone Castle It is a bit of a walk from the bus stop by
the Lawsons to the castle entrance. This may have something to do with the fact that the castle
complex is like
a small city, with even a high school inside. After finally finding the moat and
crossing the Bridge over Troubled Swans (dramatically separated from each other by nets in the water)
we paid for our ticket and
walked up a pretty serious flight of stone stairs to get to the next level, where one could
buy gifts and amazake. After partaking of the sweet sake (yum, yum)
we continued up some
more stairs to the main entrance to the inner castle area, where many people were taking photos of the
beautiful white castle in the midst of fading autumn leaves.
Within a side building was a hall filled
with photos of every other castle in Japan - very cool - and across from that was a place where
you could buy, you guessed it, more gifts.
Hikone Castle
All This In Socks
We walked up a small flight of stairs to get to the entrance to the castle, admiring the view
of the lake at the top, then entered. We had to take off our shoes immediately and put
them in the provided plastic bags. In the very next room was a short stairwell so steep,
I thought it was a ladder. Each stair
went up to my midcalf. Glad for the sturdy railings, we climbed.
Inside was just the inside of the all-wood castle, with almost no decorations whatsoever and
only small windows to look out at the view from. We followed the path along with everyone else
and soon discovered that we weren't finished with the climbing. Not even close. We followed the
long line of people waiting to go up the next stair and followed, amazed that little children and grandmothers
were all making the same journey... in their socks... holding their shoes in their free hand.
When we reached the second landing, we found that there was yet ANOTHER flight of impossibly steep
steps to climb. We began to wonder what the residents of this house had to go through every day;
our main thought was that this place needed an elevator.
There was not much on the third floor besides a few small windows to
look out of and some strange little symbols on the wall - no outdoor balcony or anything.
Anyway, looking down the stairwell was almost worse than looking up it. If just one person slipped
(perhaps startled by the flash of my camera when I took a picture?) then... well, that wouldn't
be good.
However, moving slowly and making good use of the solid railings,
we made it down the first flight, took a breather, looked at a few ancient weapons displays,
then went down the next flight. By the time we made it back down, that stairwell at the beginning
seemed like child's play.
This Would Never, Ever Happen in America Outside of Hikone castle,
we were kind of stuck without a bus. The stop was very far away and we were not sure if the bus
that came there would go in the correct direction back. It was a bit disconcerting, especially
since there weren't really a lot of taxis to be found, either. Finally, after taking a bread-and-sweet-bean
sample
from a very friendly fellow on the street, we stopped at the nearby hotel, the Hikone Castle Hotel,
to ask what our options were. (More precisely, Amparo went inside to ask while we hung out outside.)
We noticed she was taking a long time, so we walked in to check on her. She was at the desk and
shortly walked over to us and told us that we would be driven back in their hotel van.
For free! Wait, are you serious?!?! She was. We were going to essentially be
driven back to our hotel by a competing hotel. A very polite man guided us into
the little hotel van and drove us back. Okay, everyone, I now officially plug...
THE HIKONE CASTLE HOTEL
...for service above and way beyond the call of duty! Everyone, go stay there! I mean, I also was
quite pleased with our service at the Hikone Prince, but this really takes the cake!
Takoyaki Without the Tako This has to be the most
fun do-it-yourself snack ever! And to think, all that time living in Japan, and I had never
done it! Booths and stands sell takoyaki (literally 'fried octopus') all the time in Japan
but I never
thought one could A: do it at home and B: without the octopus part. But, yes, both are possible
as we demonstrated this afternoon. First, make the flour-egg batter (or use the store mix),
then, when your pan is hot, pour enough batter in each little dip in the pan to almost fill it.
Add your choice of ingredients (in our case, Cheese from America, tomatoes, and onions) and
fill the hole to the top! After a few minutes, the bottom will be cooked, so take a toothpick (!)
and gently flip it over so the other side cooks At the end, you have a neat little ball
(or a hard-boiled egg if desired) with the yummy ingredient in the center. Cool, dip in
sauce (takoyaki sauce, okonomiaki sauce, tonkatsu sauce, whatever you like) and eat!
We spent the afternoon doing just that, even if, for some of us, it was just before dinner.
Takoyaki Pan (on right) with Our Custom Ingredients
What was it With the Bread? After doing some girl-only talk then
bidding Denise goodbye (off
to a meeting far away) we returned to the hotel to eat dinner. We ate at the
French restaurant (which we had previously only eaten breakfast at) tonight, our last
night at the hotel. We were seated at the kind of table one would find at a nice Western restaurant,
with a white tablecloth and everything.
The fancy multi-fork effect was a bit diminished when the waiters came out
in bright lavender suits. They were very professional, though and completely on the
ball with the food allergy substitutes. We're sure the waiter who was forced to serve our complicated
party lost a
bet (or a janken), but we did see (gasp) other foreigners, a pair of men behind us. After listening to them speak,
it seemed they were, ironically, French. Not sure what they were doing here. Anyway, the funniest thing of the night was
the Bread Ritual. Instead of putting the bread on the table for us to eat as we pleased,
like any logical waiter
would have done, he insisted on holding the basket in front of each of us, offering the bread slices.
He was very... insistent and quite unsatisfied if we only took
one piece. And it wasn't just us: we witnessed an old couple behind us being goaded into taking
more bread than they could have possibly eaten. I'm sure this is not a French thing.
The Best Part The French restaurant did have one very significant
advantage over the Japanese restaurant: Dessert! The delicious, decadent cake selection was,
no offense, a step above the sliced melon and kiwi. It was a fine way to end our last dinner
in Hikone for this trip.
