To be honest, the first thing that struck us about Hikone Castle was the cost of getting there. About an hour by train from Takatsuki, it cost us $15 each, one way. Ouch!
After getting off the train, we wandered up to the castle. Along the way, we ran into samurai kitty. The samurai cat was everywhere, mostly in soft toy form, but this was both the first I saw, and my favourite. When we got home, I looked it up to see what the story behind the cat was. The cat's name is Hikonyan, and it was deliberately created as a castle mascot for the 400th anniversary of the castle, for advertising and sales purposes. Some story... Still, I like the polished granite kitty.
The castle itself was is one of the few original fortified castles left in Japan. Most, such as Osaka Castle are actually modern day reconstructions. Unfortunately, the queue to get in was incredibly long and not moving. We estimated at least an hour's queue to have a look inside, and decided to content ourselves with walking around the castle and admiring it from the outside.
There were also some pretty incredible views over the city of Hikone from the top of the castle hill.
At the bottom of the castle hill is Genkyu-en garden. It was pretty enough, but to be honest, I've seen enough Japanese gardens now that that one rather failed to impress. It looked somewhat ill-kempt, there were patches of dirt and the paths were in some places eroded. However, it did have some pretty views of Hikone Castle, and still beats the pants off the Toowoomba Japanese Gardens.
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