I woke up and headed to the complimentary breakfast, it was probably the best one so far. I made sure to get my money's worth by stuffing myself with eggs, sausages, toast, yogurt, and potato salad. It had traditional Japanese food as well, but I opted for the Western style breakfast. Afterwards I headed off towards Hikone where I planned to stay. Hikone is located next to Biwa-ko, the largest freshwater lake in Japan and one of the oldest lakes as well. To not make the same mistake twice, I called the guest house in the morning to make sure they had a bed open. I got lucky and there was one bed available so it worked out perfectly.
It was nice to get out of Kyoto because it was jammed with people. I guess the spring break and the cherry blossoms brought everyone here. There was a little climb out of Kyoto on a narrow sidewalk. Eventually it opened up a bit and I stopped at a fishing store along the road. It was like I was in heaven. I didn't buy anything though, because I didn't want to lug it around with me.
The route to the lake is a main highway so it was full of trucks. This made riding difficult because the roads are narrow to begin with. It actually took longer than I thought, I wasn’t riding fast though. Too many trucks along the main route, it was irritating. I should’ve taken the lake shore route but I ended up taking the bigger road so there was a lot of traffic. It wasn’t fun.
I arrived to Hikone and checked into the guest house there. The owner is very cool, he refurbished an old pre-war Japanese house so it had a very historic feel to it with a garden as well. I left my stuff behind and headed to Hikone Castle. I only had 30 minutes to check out the castle. The castle is smaller than the larger ones but still impressive nonetheless. There were many people taking pictures and walking around but not like Kyoto. The main road around Hikone Castle is also a very nice area to walk around. Here too, the shops are over 100 years old!
Before heading home I bought a supermarket bento for dinner. I got home and the owner recommended a sento nearby, which is a public bath. I couldn’t resist so I headed over to it…this bath house has also been open for close to 100 years. These sentos are disappearing nowadays I’ve heard so it’s definitely worth going to before they’re gone! Back at the guest house, I got to spend some time talking to the owner couple who were very nice people. When they first bought the house, it was in bad shape as the previous owner was a pack rat. After extensive renovations, they opened it up as a guest house. Apparently the former household were kimono handlers so they were pretty well off.
While talking to the owners, a Malaysian guy came and checked in. We both headed towards the sleeping area and we ended up sleeping next to each other. His name is Raymond and he was traveling around the Kansai area. He is Malaysian but he works in Singapore. He travels around Asia quite often so once again I could only listen as he recommended places to visit. Like me, he prefers less crowded areas so I got some good tips from him. Indonesia sounded really nice, I must make time to go there one day.