July 17, 2010
Echigawa Gion Noryo Hanabi Taikai in Aisho, 7:30 pm – 9:20 pm
Along the Echigawa River bank near Miyukibashi Bridge. If rained out, to be postponed to July 18.
愛知川祇園納涼祭花火大会
More info: 愛荘町秦荘観光協会／愛荘町愛知川観光協会　TEL：0749-37-8051
http://www.biwa.ne.jp/~e-machi/new/hanabitaikai.html

July 24, 2010
Kashiwabara-juku Yaito Matsuri fireworks, 9 pm – 9:20 pm
Near JR Kashiwabara Station in Maibara.
柏原宿やいとまつり
More info: 中山道柏原宿やいと祭実行委員会　TEL：0749‐57‐0256
http://yaito.kashiharasyuku.com/

Aug. 1, 2010
Hikone Dai-Hanabi Taikai at Matsubara Beach, Hikone, 7:45 pm – 8:30 pm
30-min. walk from Hikone Station. If rained out, to be postponed to Aug. 4.
彦根大花火大会
More info: （社）彦根観光協会　Phone: 0749-23-0001
http://www.hikoneshi.com/event/?itemid=641

Ogoto Onsen Noryo Hanabi Taikai in Ogoto Port, 8 pm – 8:30 pm
20-min. walk from Ogoto Onsen Station. Fireworks can be seen from most ryokan in Ogoto.
おごと温泉納涼花火大会
More info: おごと温泉観光協会　Phone: 077-578-1650
http://www.ogotoonsen.com/sightseeing/hanabi/

Omi-Imazu Furusato Natsu Matsuri, 9:00 pm – 9:30 pm
Climax of Imazu’s summer festival starting from 1 pm.
近江今津ふるさと夏祭り　やっさ！今津！！２０１０
More info: 近江今津ふるさと夏まつり実行委員会事務局 Phone: 0740-22-2108
http://www.takashima-kanko.jp/new/20100620_613.html

Hachiman Tenbin Matsuri in Omi-Hachman, 7:30 pm
At Kitanoshosawa area. Shuttle buses provided.
八幡てんびんまつり
More info: 八幡てんびんまつり事務局　Phone: 0748-32-6654
http://tenbinmaturi.hp.infoseek.co.jp/

Aug. 5, 2010
Nagahama Kita-Biwako Hanabi Taikai at Nagahama Port, 7:30 pm
10-min. walk from Nagahama Station. Very crowded so go early to save a spot or pay 3,000 yen for special seating. If rained out, to be postponed to Aug. 9.
長浜・北びわ湖大花火大会
More info: 長浜市観光振興課　Phone: 0749-65-6521
http://nagahamashi.org/news/hanabi2010.html

Aug. 6, 2010
Biwako Dai-Hanabi Taikai at Hama-Otsu and Nagisa Park, 7:30 pm – 8:30 pm
This is the big one, but prime viewing areas all charge admission of about 4,000 yen (even for children above age 3). The free area is farther away and terribly crowded. People are no longer allowed to save a place with vinyl mats, etc., until the fireworks day. Would you believe people saved a viewing place on Nagisa Park as early as 2 weeks before the fireworks day? If rained out, to be postponed to Aug. 10.
びわ湖大花火大会
More info: びわ湖大花火大会実行委員会　TEL:077-511-1530
http://www.biwako-visitors.jp/hanabi/index.html

Aug. 7, 2010
Makino Summer Carnival at Makino Sunny Beach in Takashima
マキノサマーカーニバル２０１０
More info: 四季遊園マキノ交流促進協議会事務局　Phone: 0740-28-8002
http://www.biwako-visitors.jp/search/event_12577.html

Ujisato Matsuri Summer Gathering in Hino
Fireworks is the climax of this summer festival (bon dance, etc.) held in the northern parking lot of Hino Town Hall.
氏郷まつり「夏の陣」2010
More info: 日野町イベント実行委員会　Phone: 0748-52-6562
http://www.town.shiga-hino.lg.jp/contents_detail.php?co=cat&frmId=1386&frmCd=4-15-2-0-0

Kotonarie Summer Festa in Higashi-Omi’s Hibari Park
Part of an illumination festival.
コトナリエサマーフェスタ２０１０
More info: 東近江市湖東商工会　Phone: 0749-45-2571
http://www.biwako-visitors.jp/search/event_373.html

Aug. 9, 2010
Ishiyama-dera Sennichikai and Setagawa fireworks, 8:30 pm – 9 pm
Fireworks along the Seta River near Ishiyama-dera. 10-min. walk from Ishiyama-dera Station on the Keihan Line.
石山寺千日会と瀬田川に煌く炎のページェント
More info: （社）石山観光協会　Phone: 077-537-1105
http://www.biwako-visitors.jp/search/event_304.html

Aug. 16, 2010
Somagawa Natsu Matsuri near Kibukawa Station, Koka
Fireworks are part of the summer festival with taiko drummers and lantern floating on the river.
杣川夏まつり
More info: 甲賀市観光協会　Phone: 0748-65-0708
http://www.biwako-visitors.jp/search/event_301.html

Aug. 17, 2010
Setagawa River Hanabi Taikai at Seta River in Otsu, 7:50 pm – 9 pm
Near Seta-no-Karahashi Bridge. Short walk from Karahashi-mae Station on the Keihan Line. Fireworks will climax a waterborne festival on boats.
瀬田川花火大会
More info: 瀬田川流域観光協会　Phone: 077-537-1105
http://www.biwako-visitors.jp/search/event_303.html

Aug. 25, 2010
Kinomoto Jizo Dai-ennichi fireworks near JR Kinomoto Station
木之本地蔵大縁日　8月22日（日）～25日（水）（花火は25日のみ）
More info: ふるさと夏まつり実行委員会　Phone: 0749-82-5902
http://www.biwako-visitors.jp/search/event_12358.html

Tickets are also available at Lute Plaza, Azai Bunka Hall, Nagahama Bunka Geijutsu Kaikan, Hikiyama Hakubutsukan Museum, and Keibun. (リュートプラザ、浅井文化ホール、長浜文化芸術会館、曳山博物館、KEIBUN）

The Tonda puppet troupe receives trainees from overseas on a regular basis. In this upcoming show, five college students from the US and UK will appear. They’ve been training full time (8 hours/day on weekdays) since June 10, 2010 at the Tonda Puppet Hall in Nagahama while doing homestays with local families. Their teacher is Abe Hidehiko (阿部秀彦), the leader of the Tonda troupe.

Each puppet weighing about 4 kg is manipulated by three people. Two of them are usually dressed as kurogo with their faces covered. So I wonder how we’ll recognize the non-Japanese puppeteers.

I saw the Tonda bunraku in Dec. 2009 at Lute Plaza and it was impressive even though I couldn’t understand the story so well. But I’m always happy to see foreigners learning traditional Japanese things, especially in Shiga. I wish them well.

Lute Plaza Web site

The back of the map has a guide to Nagahama hotels and ryokan inns and the ferry schedule to Chikubushima. The Northern Shiga Kohoku Sightseeing Federation sponsored the production of the map. They printed 5,000 copies.

With a population of 123,608 (as of Nov. 1, 2009), Nagahama is now Shiga’s third-most populous city after Otsu and Kusatsu. By area, Nagahama is now Shiga’s largest city covering a massive 539.48 ㎢ of land (680.79 ㎢ if you include Lake Biwa), larger than Takashima’s 511.36 ㎢.

With the addition of the six former towns, Nagahama boasts a wide variety of attractions, historical sites, and natural scenery. Their sightseeing department is in a very good and enviable position by having so many unique things to see. Remember that Mt. Ibuki is still in Maibara, not Nagahama.)

During Dec. 2009, the six merging towns held their town-closing ceremonies, and about 100 public employees from the six towns moved to the main building of Nagahama City Hall.

Note that addresses in the six former towns have changed. Most of the addresses are appended with the former town’s name, except for Torahime. Looks like Torahime has quite a few place names which have been renamed. Many of them now have “cho” appended to the neighborhood’s place name. If you live in the former towns or need to send stuff to people in the six former towns, check the address. The changed address can be checked in Japanese here:
http://www.city.nagahama.shiga.jp/index.cfm/6,8475,12,92,html

There will be a municipal merger ceremony on Jan. 17, 2010 at 1:30 pm at the Azai Bunka Hall. The former mayors of the six mergning  towns, Shiga Governor Kada, and others will be on hand to mark the merger. Details in Japanese:
http://www.city.nagahama.shiga.jp/index.cfm/6,8611,12,92,html

Meanwhile, I’m busy merging my Web pages for the six towns with Nagahama’s Web pages.

Lute Plaza

人形浄瑠璃「冨田人形」秋公演

The highly-acclaimed Tonda bunraku puppet troupe based in Nagahama will stage their autumn puppet show on Dec. 6, 2009 at 1:30 pm at Lute Plaza in Biwa-cho.

Tickets are only 1,000 yen for non-reserved seats (free for kids under high school age). Reserve a ticket by calling Lute Plaza at 0749-72-5257. Tickets will also be sold at the door from 1 pm. The Hikiyama Museum in Nagahama also sells tickets.

Four plays will be performed:
東海道中膝栗毛
鬼一法眼三略巻
傾城阿波の鳴門
団子売り

A shuttle bus for Lute Plaza will leave Nagahama Station’s West exit (Nishi-guchi which faces the lake) at 12:30 pm and 1 pm.

More info about the Tona puppet troupe in English:
http://www.asianinterstage.com/tonda/

In Japanese:
http://www.gaido.jp/suteki/suteki.php?ID=80

They are using a 5-meter boat seating 8 people to row off the shore of Nagahama. On June 2, the first day, 160 students from four schools rowed while trying to coordinate their rowing timing.

I think they should also start singing Biwako Shuko no Uta (Lake Biwa Rowing Song) either during or after the rowing.

Governor Yukiko Kada pulls a float.

Yogo town, home of Lake Yogo in northern Shiga, held an unusual festival called the Chawan Matsuri or Teacup Festival. It’s been 6 years since it was last held in 2003. It supposed to be held every 3 years, but depopulation and the lack of funds and young people has threatened the continuation of the festival.

It was a very impressive festival with a variety of colorful attractions. Definitely was the best Golden Week festival I saw in Shiga.

The festival started centuries ago when a potter living in Yogo (上丹生) offered teacups to the gods at Niu Shrine in appreciation of the earth used for pottery and his pottery skills.

The festival started with a Shinto ceremony at 10 am at Niu Jinja 丹生神社 shrine. At 11 am, a series of Chigo-no-Mai sacred dances were performed by boys in kimono. Then a procession from Niu Shrine to Hachiman Shrine 1 km away, with a lunch break at Chawan Matsuri no Yakata museum. The floats are crowned with a very tall (over 7 meters) decoration of dolls, bowls, and other objects connected together and somehow do not fall down. The climax is when they detach the supporting poles from the lofty float decorations.

Shiga Governor Kada Yukiko was also on hand to watch the procession and even pull the floats. I got good shots of her too.
See my photos: http://photoguide.jp/pix/displayimage.php?album=742

By March 17, 2009, all the town councils and the Nagahama city council passed a bill to merge. They will then submit an application to merge to Shiga Prefecture for approval. On March 25, Governor Kada will submit a bill to the prefectural assembly to  approve the merger.

This merger was proposed a few years ago, but failed. This time, they reopened merger talks in Oct. 2007 and met eleven times to finally sign the letter of agreement.

The letter of agreement stipulated the following major points:

• The six towns are to merge into Nagahama.
• The name of the newly expanded city will remain “Nagahama.”
• The new city will inherit all the assets and liabilities of the six towns.
• The current total of 93 city and town council members will shrink to 63 after the merger.
• The city hall will remain at the Nagahama City Hall.

After the merger, the total population of the city will be about 124,000, making it Shiga’s second most populous city and largest city in area with about 680 sq. km. I hope each town will retain their old place names (Yogo-cho, Takatsuki-cho, etc.).

I think that Nagahama and Maibara will also merge someday as well. They would make a good couple.

Kawau cormorants from Lake Biwa have been found in Kumamoto in Kyushu, over 580 km away, the furthest distance away confirmed so far. Previously, the furthest away where they were found was in Chiba.

Seven years ago, foot rings were attached to cormorants born on Chikubushima island. A bird wearing such a ring was found in Sagara village in Kumamoto Pref. in Sept. 2008.

The problem is that Shiga is too poor to effectively eliminate these fish-depleting birds, so they plan to seek assistance from the national government.

NHK TV Otsu reported that from April 2009, Shiga will restart the shooting of cormorant birds called kawau. They found that the kawau population in Shiga has almost doubled since last year to a whopping 74,000 birds. Most of them live on Chikubushima island where they have devastated the trees with their droppings and nests. The once picturesque and lush green island is going bald and brown.

Shiga wants to reduce the kawau population to 4,000 birds in 5 years. Wow, where will all those dead birds go? In the lake??

On Aug. 25, 2008, I went to see the Ennichi festival in Kinomoto. Nice sunny day and lots of people and food stalls along the road to Jizo-in temple. I didn’t stay to see the fireworks though.

Pictures: 
http://photoguide.jp/pix/index.php?cat=172

Photos: http://photoguide.jp/pix/index.php?cat=178

You can see that I visited Amenomori Hoshu-an museum. If you are interested in Japan-Korean relations, visit this museum. Nishino Water Tunnel was also interesting. The tunnel has cool air, good place to cool off in summer.

Also Google Map of Takatsuki: 
http://maps.google.com/maps/ms?ie=UTF8&hl=en&msa=0&msid=105501786212832952601.000442bb566771db7e066&z=13&om=0

However, we now have enough rice, and the rice paddies at Hayasaki Naiko are very hard to farm due to the water level being lower than Biwako. The farmers have problems finding a successor and the old water drainage pump is too expensive to replace. Shiga Prefecture then proposed to restore the paddy land into a naiko again. As an experiment, Shiga Prefecture flooded about one-fourth of the land to create a wetland or small lake. This was in 2001. Today, the flooded area is full of nature, with fish, reeds, and birds. It’s a very successful ecological experiment. 

So they want to buy all the land and flood all of it to restore Hayasaki naiko. But Shiga does not have much money and the land prices are high. So it is still an ongoing ecological experiment. A local NPO conducts tours for kids and adults. Winter would be a good time to visit, when the swans, etc., are there. But spring-summer is good too since it’s warm enough to go into the water. 

This nature restoration project 自然再生 is actually quite famous among environmental researchers and groups in Japan and overseas. It’s also about environmental sociology 環境社会学, about how people co-exist and live in the natural environment. Biwako is unique to have so many naiko attached lakes. It’s too bad that many of them were buried. They were actually essential for Biwako’s ecology. The naiko’s reeds, etc., kept the water clean and allowed fish and birds to breed. 

Photos: 
http://photoguide.jp/pix/thumbnails.php?album=692 

More info: 
http://www.hayazakinaiko.jp/ 
http://www.ex.biwa.ne.jp/~hayazaki/

On March 31, 2008, the Ando House 北国街道 安藤家, a Japanese-style house built in 1905, was closed in central Nagahama.

The house was rented from the Ando family by the city of Nagahama and operated as a tourist attraction for 10 years until it was closed. The city could not recoup the annual expense of over 7 million yen and was operating the house in the red. The city decided not to renew the lease. The Ando family was one of the local administrators of Nagahama while Toyotomi Hideyoshi was the Nagahama Castle lord.

That’s really nice. Next time I visit Nagahama, I hope to get the map, available at the tourist info counter at Nagahama Station and other major tourist spots in the city.