Umi no Schole (湖のスコーレ) is a large, multipurpose shopping facility with a spacious store, cafe, outdoor courtyard, bookstore, event space, gallery, workshop for hands-on activities, and sandwich and ice cream stand.
It opened in this new two-story building in December 2021, replacing an old, multi-story building. The redevelopment of this neighborhood is proving to be successful with Umi no Schole attracting many shoppers.
Umi means “lake” in Japanese, and Schole means “school” in Greek. A place for people to learn things. It’s right across from the Nagahama Hikiyama Museum. Short walk from JR Nagahama Station and Kurokabe Square, right next to the Otemon-dori Shopping Arcade.
I visited on July 21, 2025 when they were holding a week-long event called Meet India (more info below).
Address: Umi no Schole, Motohama-cho 13-29, Nagahama, Shiga, Japan (滋賀県長浜市元浜町13-29)
Short walk from JR Nagahama Station on JR Hokuriku Line. Closest shinkansen station is Maibara Station for the Hikari or Kodama trains.
Map: https://maps.app.goo.gl/Ru9TvAUvBKdQsYti9
Phone: 0749-53-3401
Website: https://www.umi-no-schole.jp/about
Umi no Schole store
The Umi no Schole store sells an eclectic mix of premium goods from Shiga, other parts of Japan, and overseas (especially Europe). You can find food, spices, cheese, French wine, clothing, shoes, wallets, tableware, small furniture, essential oils, and other miscellaneous things.
Photos below show just a small sample of what the store sells.
Lots of high-quality merchandise even though the brand is not so famous.
Left: Three Gray and Seven Gray, nice looking sneakers for ¥24,200.
Right: Dansko shoes from Pennsylvania, ¥30,800.
Left: Biwa Cola concentrate made with 100% natural ingredients such as Adoberry grown in Takashima and honey from Omi-Hachiman. There’s also Black Rice Cola.
Right: Award-winning original cheese made by Umi no Schole.
Left: Hot chili pepper spices under the “Piriri” brand using Yahei chili peppers. Includes “Indian Spicy” (aqua label) produced by fm craic in Konan.
Right: Wooden dishes.
Left: Yomogi Soap made with mugwort leaf extract, made in Shiga with no additives, ¥3190/bar.
Right: Meditation mist with very pleasant aromas from essential oils. Samples provided.
Left: Wallets and card cases. Right: Pet rugs.
You see, lots of miscellaneous stuff! They probably change their merch, so you might not see all these things when you visit.
“Meet India” in Nagahama (July 19th–27th, 2025)
Umi no Schole (湖のスコーレ) is also hosting a rare, week-long showcase of Indian culture named Meet India.
The event is a collaboration between Umi no Schole and Transit, a Japanese outbound travel magazine. Meet India used some of Umi no Schole‘s store space, the outdoor courtyard, and the bookstore (event space). It has become an educational gathering of Japanese experts on India and vendors of Indian merchandise, food, and drink. All for the public.
When: July 19th to 27th, 2025 (closed on 22nd), 11:00 am–6:00 pm
Where: Umi no Schole, Motohama-cho 13-29, Nagahama, Shiga, Japan (滋賀県長浜市元浜町13-29)
Short walk from JR Nagahama Station on JR Hokuriku Line. Closest shinkansen station is Maibara Station for the Hikari or Kodama trains.
Map: https://maps.app.goo.gl/Ru9TvAUvBKdQsYti9
Phone: 0749-53-3401
Website: https://transit.jp/article/india/2507_meet-india/
“Meet India” event features the following:
- Talk sessions by Japanese experts on Indian culture. (Weekends only)
- Sale and display of Indian products, especially clothing and food.
- Indian food stalls and souvenir stalls in the outdoor courtyard. (Weekends only)
- Sale and display of Japanese books about Indian cuisine.
- Sale of the new India Travel Guide book published in Japanese by Transit magazine.
TRANSIT magazine
Meet India is organized by Umi no Schole and TRANSIT, a quarterly Japanese travel magazine for outbound travel published since spring 2008. (No English.)
Each issue focuses on a different country or region. Thick paper magazine full of photos and information. Published by a company called euphoria factory and distributed by Kodansha. Available at major bookstores in Japan.
Transit sometimes holds travel talk sessions mainly in Tokyo to spotlight different destinations or travel topics. The talk sessions have been mostly standalone talk events and not a series like Meet India which has five talk presentations.
I think this is why they are calling it the biggest India event ever in the Kansai Region. Meet India is Transit’s first event in the Kansai Region.
Talk sessions about India
There are five Japanese talk sessions (90 minutes) scheduled on the weekends as follows. They cover a wide variety of topics such as artistic camel hair cutting, fabrics, music, food, and spices. Unusual topics we don’t normally learn about in Japan. (No English.)
Talk sessions are all in Japanese and admission (¥2800) is charged for each talk. (Except for July 20 when admission will be ¥5000.) The admission fee is discounted to ¥2300 if you buy Transit’s India Travel Guide Book (see below).
Reservations and ticket purchases can be made online in advance. You can also buy tickets at the door if they still have room.
All the speakers were contributors to Transit’s India Guide Book (see below).
July 19 (Sat), 3:00 pm
Takeichi Megumi’s Camel Adventure. The first talk is by a native of Nagahama and perhaps one of the most intriguing talks.
Takeichi Megumi (武市萌美) is a former hairdresser, so she’s expert with scissors cutting hair (now camel fur). She first came across camel fur art during a trip to India in 2013. In 2014, she entered the world’s largest camel fur cutting competition held at the Bikaner Camel Festival in Rajasthan, Bikaner (ラジャスタン州ビカネール) in northwestern India.
She has since traveled to India every autumn to compete in the world’s largest camel fur cutting competition held in January. In 2019, she finally won the camel fur cutting competition. In January 2025 this year, she won the competition again.
To see what she does, see her Insta photos here and video. Amazing!
Talk event: https://transitmagazinestore.com/products/event-india-0719
July 20 (Sun), 6:00 pm
U-zhaan and Ishihama Masao’s Bengal Travels (Their Bengali curry is sold in the store.) Both U-zhaan and Ishihama are musicians. U-zahaan plays the tabla drum, and Ishihama plays the sitar. Both are Indian musical instruments. They will play music during their presentation. Ticket is ¥5000 or ¥4000 if you buy the India Guide Book.
Talk event: https://transitmagazinestore.com/products/event-india-0720
July 21 (Mon, national holiday), 3:00 pm
CALICO and Arimoto Yayoi (在本彌生) introducing handmade Indian fabrics.
Calico is cotton fabrics made in India. They have some Calico clothing displayed in the store.
I went to see this talk event, and it was full.
CALICO is an Indian clothing company run by KOBAYASHI Fumie. Her photographer is Ms. Arimoto, a former flight attendant who became a pro photographer. They work as a team while traveling in India. They showed slides of Indian people weaving or wearing various fabrics.
Talk event: https://transitmagazinestore.com/products/event-india-0721
July 26 (Sat) 3:00 pm
mimi Lotus and nawachai’s Chai Talk
Talk event: https://transitmagazinestore.com/products/event-india-0726
July 27 (Sun) 3:00 pm
Inada Shunsuke and Higuchi Misa’s Spice Travels
Talk event: https://transitmagazinestore.com/products/event-india-0727
Also possible to view the talks online for a cheaper price of ¥1500.
https://transitmagazinestore.com/collections/event
Indian merchandise in the store
For Meet India, the Umi no Schole store sells and displays calico cotton clothing, saree/sari and other apparel, Transit Indian T-shirts, curry, spices, chai tea, India Travel Guide book, and Japanese books about Indian cuisine and spices.
In conjunction with Meet India, one corner of the Umi no Schole store is a pop-up section called “CALICO: the ART of INDIAN VILLAGE FABRICS” held from July 16 to August 3, 2025. CALICO is the name of the fabric store based in Nara Prefecture. CALICO was also one of the talk session presenters.
The section was filled with handwoven calico clothing shown below.
Calico has a website in English: https://www.calicoindia.jp/en/pages/about-us
Indigo calico clothing. The fabrics were woven by hand by women in small villages in India. There may be uneven parts, loose threads, or even bits of grass woven in the fabric, attesting to the handmade weaving.
Product tag shows where the fabric (silk, Tassar) was made in India. Price is ¥51,700. Click image to enlarge.
Outdoor courtyard
On weekends during Meet India, a few Indian food and souvenir stalls operate in the small outdoor courtyard behind the Umi no Schole store. Stalls sell Indian curry, chai tea, and souvenirs. On the weekend of July 19–21, the yellow booth was Guna Guna Curry serving West India curry takeout (sold out). Different vendors came for the next weekend.
Vendors include Casablanca (世界の民藝カサブランカ) for Indian apparel, and Tokyo-based Asia Hunter (アジアハンター) for Indian and Nepali tableware. Both are well established in their trades.
Left photo are masks with the faces of Indian celebrities. Center is tableware also from Asia Hunter.
Right photo shows Guna Guna Curry’s West India takeout (sold out).
Since the courtyard is outdoors, it’s very hot in July. If you bought any food or drink from the courtyard vendors, you can eat it inside this air-conditioned workshop room next to the store.
Umi no Schole Bookstore
Umi no Schole also has a bookstore in an adjacent wing behind the main store. It has 3,000 books in stock, mostly art books.
For Meet India, the bookstore has many Japanese books about Indian cuisine, curry, and spices.
Left photo: On the far end of the bookstore is the event space where the talk sessions are held with a projection screen. They have about 50 seats.
Right photo: Postcards (¥200 each) of the Bikaner Camel Festival taken by a Japanese photographer who saw the festival in January. No postcards of the camel fur-cutting winner though.
India Travel Guide book by Transit
Transit has also published an India Travel Guide book in Japanese in October 2024. I bought a copy and it’s quite good with lots of color photos and information for Japanese tourists.
The book is divided into different regions and also covers basic topics like customs and manners, key words for tourists, basic Indian history, festivals, yoga, food, spices, and music.
All the Meet India talk session presenters also contributed to this book as a photographer or writer. This guide book is the second one Transit has published (first one was for Thailand in 2023).
A5 size (21 cm x 15 cm) with 253 pages and small enough to carry around. ¥2500.
Sample pages and order form here: https://transitmagazinestore.com/products/transit-travel-guide-india
Why Meet India in Nagahama?
I asked the staff how Meet India in Nagahama came about. I was told that Umi no Schole staff and Transit staff were acquaintances and they visited India in January 2025 to see the camel fur-cutting competition at the Bikaner Camel Festival where Nagahama native TAKEICHI Megumi (武市萌美) would be competing. Congratulations, she won the competition for the second time in 2025. (The first time was in 2019.)
This spurred the idea of holding an India event at Umi no Schole in Nagahama. So it took them only about six months to plan it. They got all their India experts together and pulled it off. Good job!
I was kind of surprised that they didn’t have a talk about Kannon (Avalokiteśvara) since Kannon originally came from India and Nagahama has loads of Kannon statues, even a National Treasure. Then again, Nagahama must have already had many lectures about Kannon in the past, and the store is probably unable to stock or sell Kannon statues…
They don’t seem to have any plans to make Meet India an annual event in Nagahama or elsewhere in Japan since they usually feature a different country each time. But who knows what will come out of this.
Umi no Schole Cafe (喫茶室)
Another major attraction of Umi no Schole is the cafe. It’s spacious and aesthetically pleasant with wooden tables, chairs, and floor. Open 11 am–5 pm (order lunch by 4:30 pm).
The menu includes curry rice with Omi wagyu beef and locally fermented curry.
Besides curry rice, the cafe’s lunch menu includes Omi shrimp udon noodles and taco rice. Comes with a green vegetable salad. Confections include cheese cake, coffee gelatin, and cheese snacks. They also serve coffee and tea.
Umi no Schole turned out to be a pleasant and comfortable place to hang out. Good venue for local events too. Shop, eat, take a coffee break, or enjoy weekend events. Location is great. Highly recommended.
