Nagahama Strolling

What?
Nagahama (長浜) is a town located on the northeastern shore of Lake Biwa (琵琶湖), and is famous for its Hikiyama Festival (長浜曳山祭) and children’s kabuki theater, but probably even more for its quaint town center with many old buildings and small streets that intertwine around the Kurokabe Square (黒壁スクエア). Unlike many other townscapes in Japan, the old area isn’t limited to a street or two. The whole downtown area breathes authenticity and antiquity – reinforced by old sake and shoyu breweries and the oldest existent station building. On the other hand, local youth keep the town vibrant, with places of interest like the Kaiyodo Figurine Museum (海洋堂フィギュアミュージアム) and the Umi no Schole (湖のスコーレ) building that promotes startups like the Happy Taro Brewery (ハッピー太郎醸造所). Also part of Nagahama is Chikubu Island (竹生島), of which you can read more about here. And why did I go to Nagahama? Right, for the noodles topped with grilled mackerel.
Where?
Nagahama is located in Shiga Prefecture (滋賀県), roughly halfway between Nagoya (名古屋) and Kyoto (京都). The place is easily accessible as it’s only a few stops away from Maibara Station (米原駅), a big shinkansen hub. From Osaka (大阪) or Kyoto, some trains run directly on to Nagahama Station (長浜駅), but be aware that only the first 4 train cars will make the journey. All other cars are decoupled at Maibara Station. Otherwise get off the train at Maibara and switch to a train on the Hokuriku Line (北陸線).
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Explore Nagahama Japan Travel

Everyone has different preferences, and as faithful readers will know, mine are nature and hiking. Give me a few options to go to, and I’ll most probably choose the option farthest away from shops and diners and the likes. And that is exactly why I accompanied my wife to this place that I otherwise would never visit if alone.

The one and only goal of my wife was to eat the local dish yakisaba somen (thin wheat noodles topped with grilled mackerel in a umami-rich broth) in the quaint setting of Yokaro restaurant (翼果楼). This place tends to have long lines, so the plan was to be well in time for the opening at 10:30. This lining up thing is something I usually never join. I always think the next-door place serves the same thing, but probably cheaper. But I must admit: we only waited for about 5 minutes before the restaurant opened 10 minutes early, and when entering the place, the atmosphere immediately took away any doubts I had.
Yokaro is located in an area packed with houses from the Edo and Meiji periods, and its building is one of those older venues. The place is decorated with a charming mess of kitsch, and it simply matches the antique interior. And what about the food? Well, that was simply delicious.

With our main goal finished so early in the day, we just strolled along the streets without any plan. Eating a pitch-black chocolate ice-cream in front of the black walled buildings of the Kurokabe Square, enjoying the tinkling of the glass wind chimes, entering the glass shop for a wide display of glass items and music boxes. The place wasn’t nearly as hot as the big city and there was a lovely breeze coming from nearby lake Biwa.

It certainly wasn’t planned, but we hopped on an amphibious bus to take a small tour of Nagahama town followed by a short boat ride on that same Lake Biwa. The bus ride takes you along Nagahama Castle, but that’s pretty much it. The views from Lake Biwa also aren’t very spectacular, so I can understand some people might find the price too high of a hurdle.
It was a pleasant first experience though, and the guide did everything she could to make the ride fun and more than average.

Yokaro - a modern sign on an old building.

The greying wall of the fifth "black wall building".

My first amphibious ride.

Lovely atmosphere at the Kurokabe Square.

The aimlessly strolling around town continued after the amphibious bus took us back the Kurokabe Square. The whole area between the Otemon Street and Yu-ichibangai is packed with small atmospheric shops, galleries and eateries. We passed the Giant Vertical Kaleidoscope Garden, which is clearly decrepit and abandoned, but still is fun just because it is so out of date. Anywhere else in Japan, the entrance would have been sealed off, so I’d say explore while you still can. We went all the way to the big Nagahama Betsuin Daitsuji Temple and then turned back, again zigzagging the arcades. People who like figurines can visit the Kaiyodo Figurine Museum. Kaiyodo is a company that makes figurines, mostly of manga and anime, but if the shop is to believed also a myriad of other topics like dinosaurs and gacha-gacha gadgets. We only entered the shop (which also serves as the entrance for the museum which costs 1000 yen), but for us that was already fun enough.
Other places that we went to but didn’t enter: the Nagahama Roman Beer Restaurant (because for some strange reason it closes in the afternoon) and the Nagahama Railway Museum (because we were already satisfied with what we’ve seen).

One place we did enter was the “Umi no Schole” building, a modern place of which the theme is “fermentation”. It’s honestly speaking not always that clear as the place also houses a cooking ware shop, a book store and a photo studio, but there are equally manufacturing and brewing facilities for cheese, miso and koji. And that’s were I first discovered “doburoku”, an ancient alcoholic beverage akin to sake, but unfiltered. It used to be brewed by many farmers, but during the Meiji Restauration it all but disappeared with the prohibition of home-brewing.
Some people have decided to revive this kind of brewing, and one of them is Kotaro Ikejima who now runs his little brewery Happy Taro Brewery inside the Umi no Schole building. He blends many of his brews with herbs and fruits, resulting in a wide range of tastes, inspired by beer hops and local delicacies like azuki among others. Happy Taro’s brews are fresh, easy to drink and with 6% rather low in alcohol and a great discovery!