The Tokyo Marathon was held on Feb. 23, 2014. Seeing all the zany costumes is such great entertainment. I spotted this one person carrying Hiko-nyan. Judging from this marathon, I’m… Read more
I’ve created “We love (heart) Shiga” banners (horizontal and square) for anyone to download and use. Feel free to use them on your Web site, blog, Facebook, business cards, letterheads, etc.… Read more
Occasionally, I receive fan email or favorable comments relayed to me one way or another. Or they send me photos of their trip to Shiga. They find my Shiga site interesting… Read more
Updated: Sept 14, 2025 Hikone’s nationally famous official mascot, Hiko-nyan (ひこにゃん) (also spelled Hikonyan ひこんやん), is a white beckoning cat (maneki-neko) wearing a red samurai helmet with golden horns. “Hiko”… Read more
NHK TV news in Otsu reported an interesting bit of news on Feb. 26, 2013 about the governor of Kyoto stating that he was in favor of merging Kyoto and… Read more
I saw these two runners wearing a Hiko-nyan cap near the finish line at Tokyo Big Sight today, Feb. 24, 2013. The man on the left has a T-shirt printed… Read more
Went to see sumo on January 25, 2013, the 13th day of the New Year’s sumo tournament at the Kokugikan sumo arena in Tokyo. I finally saw Nionoumi (鳰の湖), Shiga’s only… Read more
This is an island in the Seto Inland Sea in Yamaguchi Prefecture. When seeing this kanji name (大津島), those of us in Shiga cannot help but to call this island “Otsushima.”… Read more