Omi-Hachiman and the town of Azuchi merged on March 21, 2010. It is now a new city of about 82,000 residents with the city’s name remaining the same. A mayoral… Read more
The William Merrell Vories exhibition is being held in Omi-Hachiman until Nov. 3, 2009. For 1,000 yen, you can enter a few of the Vories-designed buildings in Omi-Hachiman normally closed… Read more
Released in Japan on Sept. 12, 2009, Katen no Shiro (火天の城) or Castle Under Fiery Skies is about Okabe Mataemon, a Nagoya (Atsuta)-based master carpenter who in 1576 was ordered… Read more
As reported earlier, Omi-Hachiman and neighboring Azuchi are planning to merge in March 2010. On May 22, 2009, the deliberation committee for the merger between the two municipalities held a… Read more
Due to the spread of swine flu, the Shiga Prefectural Board of Education has decided to cancel all high school student exchange trips to sister cities in Michigan, USA. Some… Read more
On March 26, 2009, Omi-Hachiman’s city council passed a bill to establish the Omi-Hachiman-Azuchi Municipal Merger Deliberation Council (近江八幡市・安土町合併協議会) on April 1 to aim for a municipal merger with neighboring… Read more
The Japan Times newspaper (Feb. 15, 2009) had a good article about Kyorinbo temple and how it was restored. This is one temple I still haven’t visited. Hope to go… Read more
The Japan Times printed a pretty interesting story about William Vories on Feb. 28, 2008: http://search.japantimes.co.jp/cgi-bin/fa20080228a1.html The writer says that his architectural designs were not original. They were taken from… Read more