Festivals Otsu Festival 2024 Early Oct Otsu Matsuri takes place in early October and features thirteen ornate floats with ingenious mechanical puppets.
Culture Otsu: Oddly Overshadowed Arlene Bastion Otsu has its own merits including Lake Biwa and shrines significant to Buddhist-Shinto origins. It need not be overshadowed as a..
Culture Corn Festival 2024 Late Jul - Mid Aug Corn is a vital crop with immense importance as a food, feed, and fuel source. The Yatsugatake corn variant grows well in Japan..
Culture Amazing Hieizan Arlene Bastion Hieizan, the home of the awesome Enryakuji, with its immense, luxurious forests, emanates its own sacred and spiritual feeling...
Historical Hiking to Enryaku-ji Temple Ryoji Aramaki Hike to Enryakuji is a great way to see a world heritage site for free.
Culture Enryaku-ji Ian VanDuzer It may not attract the huge crowds of other Kyoto temples, but Enryaku-ji is one temple complex you don't want to miss.
11 Temples & Shrines Ishiyama Temple in Otsu Cathy Cawood A large, unusual wollastonite rock formation is surrounded by beautiful temple buildings of Ishiyama-dera in Otsu.
14 Temples & Shrines Plum Blossom at Ishiyamadera Cathy Cawood Plum blossom at a Shiga temple with a connection to the life of Murasaki Shikibu, the world's first novel writer.