Biwako (Lake Biwa)

...is famous in Japan, supposedly (read straight from the title, and this line will actually make sense). I had not heard of it but in passing until my host mother suggested a trip down to the area, which really ended up being a drive-by - well, it is winter, so I suppose there wasn't much else to do at the lake but see it, and it was very impressive. The entire trip reminded me very much of home, since we first set out on a winding road between massive, tree-blanketed hills and broad stretches of low-lying farmland. It was a wonderfully crisp and frigid day, clear but for a couple wispy clouds overhead, and the air had settled with that curious hollowness peculiar to such days over the surprisingly green fields. Here and there people were burning things, I suppose, and the smoke curled up pleasantly and spread in an opaque fog beneath the snowy caps of the taller hills (I'm not sure if they technically would be considered mountains, even with the evident ski-lifts). As for the trees on those hills, they were a vivid mixture of reds, golds, greens, and stark branches bared to the sky.

The lake itself also reminded me of home for various reasons. At any rate, the most remarkable portion was probably the, again supposedly, famous Biwa Bridge. Now, if you think it's famous for the reasons bridges are usually famous (it's long, old, constructed with high-tech components, etc) you would be wrong. There is a song that goes along with the Biwa lake (need I say again, supposedly famous - note that biwa is actually the word for an Japanese stringed instrument as well). That isn't as random a comment as it seems. Roll down your window on the bridge, and the acoustics between the wind, the car, and the bridge actually play the Biwa lake song as you drive....pure awesomeness!!

Of course, I discovered soon enough that the trip, which was surprisingly far, was not just for sight-seeing. So it was that I first saw my host father's workplace - a large hospital in the middle of nowhere - and delivered a box of scrumptious (I ate one before we took them) cream puffs. I don't really like cream that much, so I can attest to the fact that if anyone does cream puffs right, it's the people in Japan. Anyway, it was overall a lot of fun.

We also went to a small shrine there (brought my friend again), and I will soon look up the relationship it had with Nobunaga (I've been reading one of my host brother's historical manga, so we both wanted to see it). 

My host mother explained the pair of dogs, "a (ah)" and "un (oon)," twins who guard the gates in the shrines. Pictured here is the dragon at the hand purification well.  

And the entrance to the shrine itself.

Returning to Matsugasaki, I thought to post a couple pictures of my everyday life. First of all, a few glorious looks at the local hillsides. Matsugasaki is fairly far out in the country, despite being a busy city itself, so it really is beautiful from day to day.

Recently, I also caught a glimpse of a rainbow when coming home. I was with a Japanese friend, and when I mentioned that Americans believed in a pot of gold at the end of the rainbow (imagine his confusion) he suggested that the rainbow appeared to end in Matsugasaki, so I should hurry and retrieve the treasure! Well, he was right of course, and I did not feel the need to explain to him about fighting off leprachauns as well, so I went to take a look. Of course, the rainbow had faded before I reached its end, so I didn't find my gold. But a picture is just as good!

Here's the rainbow a little earlier, when I first glimpsed it in town and decided to chase it down.

On another note, Japanese children believe that Santa works at KFC, and lives in the Netherlands =D Oh dear!