A short article about Lake Biwa titled, Japan’s blue pearl / Views of Lake Biwa is in today’s The Daily Yomiuri English newspaper (Jan. 15, 2012 issue). It was written by Christal Whelan in her monthly column called KANSAI CULTURESCAPES. She is a cultural anthropologist (Ph.D) living in Kyoto.

She writes mainly about Biwa pearls which are ironically obscure now, but quite famous outside Shiga among pearl fans. During New Year’s, I met with Christal when she visited Nagahama and Chikubushima for the first time. She visited Shiga a few times to research this article and has seen many more places (such as Harie in Takashima) than she writes about. She told me that she enjoyed Shiga and would definitely come back and visit again.

Thanks to Christal and The Daily Yomiuri for the article.

Her article is online, but as of this writing, the five photos in the newspaper article are not included in the online article: http://www.yomiuri.co.jp/dy/features/culture/T120109001338.htm