Akafuku-Main store | Review by Holly

Kyoto has both an eastern and western Honganji Temple, but originally there was only one Honganji Temple. After Kennyo Shonin passed away, his eldest son Kyonyo succeeded him as head of Honganji, but Toyotomi Hideyoshi later ordered him to retire, and the position passed to his third son, Junnyo. This became the foundation for the lineage that would later develop into Nishi Honganji. Later still, Tokugawa Ieyasu granted Kyonyo land around Karasuma Rokujo and Shichijo in Kyoto, where Kyonyo reestablished Honganji, resulting in the present-day Higashi and Nishi Honganji temples.
Higashi Honganji is closer to Kyoto Station than Nishi Honganji. It is about a 7-minute walk from JR Kyoto Station, so if you happen to be nearby, I highly recommend stopping by. The first time I entered Higashi Honganji, I was genuinely taken aback because the grounds were far larger than I had expected. The Founder’s Hall in particular is one of the largest wooden structures in the world, and its interior contains 927 tatami mats. Compared with the other temples I had visited over the past few days, the ones I had previously thought were huge suddenly seemed like nothing.
And Higashi Honganji is not just “big.” If you look closely at the buildings, you will find many interesting details. Although the main buildings you see today have been reconstructed, the architecture still has plenty of details worth taking the time to examine. On this visit, for example, I saw quite a few wooden carvings featuring animals. The rabbit in the photo is one of them, and deer, dragons, lions, and other animals can be found elsewhere on the grounds. When visiting a large temple like this, it is easy to miss these small details if you only keep staring at the main hall. Instead, slowly looking up and down will reveal quite a few interesting things.
Also, it happened to be raining when I visited, and there seemed to be some kind of temple event going on. I saw the temple staff taking out a huge number of umbrellas to organize and dry them. From a distance, the sight of so many open umbrellas was actually quite impressive. This is not something an ordinary tourist would particularly expect to see, but it ended up becoming one of my strongest memories of Higashi Honganji.
I also never expected such a solemn temple to have its own mascot. On this visit, I saw a standee of “Ran’on-kun” on the grounds. It is a lion wearing Buddhist robes and holding prayer beads, which felt like quite a contrast at first glance. I later looked it up and found that it is an official character created for events related to the 750th memorial anniversary of Shinran Shonin in 2011. It made me feel that Japanese Buddhism is really quite modern.
And honestly, I personally think Higashi Honganji is quite luxurious. It feels very different from the style of Buddhist temples I commonly see in Taiwan, especially because the halls are decorated with many gold elements, making the overall appearance quite ornate. I even felt that it had the same kind of glittering golden visual effect as Nijo Castle,

Although Omihachiman isn't very far from the station, we rented bicycles near the JR station to save our legs. Luckily, we did, because the sights in Omihachiman were farther apart than expected, and some stretches were sloped. Even if you take a bus to the sights, the actual area to explore is still fairly large, so walking can be a little tiring. Having bicycles was really much more convenient.
The white walls, lattice windows, traditional machiya houses, and scenery around Hachiman-bori really give Omihachiman the feel of an Edo-period castle town. Almost any angle makes for an atmospheric photo. Although it looks a little like Kurashiki, the two are still different. There aren't as many businesses here as in Kurashiki, but the smaller crowds give it a character of its own. Since we visited in winter, the trees on both sides of the canal were bare. It wasn't as pretty as in other seasons, but the desolate feeling had its own charm. We also ran into lots of cats along the way. They weren't afraid of people and let us take pictures, which made me very happy.
Another main reason we included Omihachiman in this trip was the “Omihachiman Sekku Doll Tour,” because I wanted to see the Hina dolls displayed by local businesses. After actually visiting, I realized that it was more like individual families displaying their treasured Hina dolls in their own stores or homes and opening the spaces to visitors, rather than the kind of large exhibition I had imagined. Since we would have to enter the stores and would feel awkward leaving without buying anything, we didn't go out of our way to see them. However, the restaurant where we ate also had Hina dolls on display, and we found a style we liked, so it still felt worthwhile.
We also stopped by Hakuunkan along the way. This building was originally built in 1877 as Hachiman Higashi School. It combines Western architectural styles with traditional Japanese techniques and is a representative example of pseudo-Western architecture. It is now used as a tourist information center and is a convenient place to rest, ask for information, and buy souvenirs while exploring Hachiman-bori and the old town. We bought a postcard made from rush grass here, printed with a very Japanese-style design. I had already planned to buy a postcard to mail to myself, and when I saw this unusual design, I decided this was the one.
Another thing I was really looking forward to in Omihachiman was CLUB HARIE's baumkuchen. However, the Himure House doesn't directly face the main road, and at first we wandered around for quite a while without finding it. Finally, my friend couldn't take it anymore and rushed straight to Hakuunkan to ask the staff. That's when we learned it was actually nearby. After entering from the road near Hakuunkan, we found it by looking to the left.
In the end, we bought baumkuchen and pudding. The pudding looked delicious at the time, so I picked it up on impulse, but after eating it, I actually regretted it a little. If I'd known, I would have spent the entire budget on baumkuchen. The baumkuchen itself wasn't too sweet, the kind of flavor Taiwanese people would like.

I actually had only two goals for this visit to Hikone Castle: Hikonyan and the legendary staircase that's nearly 90 degrees steep. To make the schedule go more smoothly, we specifically came in the morning, hoping to catch Hikonyan's 11:00 performance. Hikone Castle itself is a National Treasure of Japan. Construction began in 1604 and took about 20 years to complete. The castle, once ruled by the Ii family as feudal lords, still retains much of its historic appearance. I originally didn't have many expectations for the castle itself, but once I went inside, even just walking from the entrance toward the castle grounds made me realize that it was actually quite large. There's a fair distance from the entrance to the castle keep.
The path into the castle grounds is actually pretty steep, but once I climbed up and looked down, the whole view suddenly gave me a strange sense of traveling through time, as if I had really stepped into the castle grounds of the past. Then it was time to wait for the staff to lead Hikonyan out to meet everyone. All I can say is that as soon as Hikonyan appeared, everyone there instantly went wild! Hikonyan was already adorable, and the staff member in the costume kept acting cute, so I couldn't stop taking pictures. I was snapping away almost the entire time.
The only unfortunate thing was that we couldn't take pictures directly with Hikonyan that day. We could only take photos from a distance or pose with the nearby signboard. Still, I was already very satisfied just to see Hikonyan in person.
After seeing Hikonyan, it was time to take on the extremely steep staircase leading up to the castle keep. Hikone Castle has an original three-story compound-style keep, and the stairs inside have an incline of around 60 to 62 degrees. Even before reaching the legendary staircase, the other stairs inside the castle were already very steep. When I finally saw the staircase leading to the very top, it honestly looked even more extreme than I'd imagined. There was just a rope beside it serving as a handrail, with staff at the top and bottom watching out for visitors' safety. I felt like I was basically crawling up on all fours.
After climbing to the top of the keep, the view outside was truly beautiful. Apparently, you can see Lake Biwa when the weather is clear. Unfortunately, although the weather was pretty good that day, there were still some clouds, so Lake Biwa wasn't very clear. Still, being able to look out over the surrounding scenery from that height made me feel that the difficult climb hadn't been for nothing.
But the real challenge wasn't over yet. Climbing up the stairs was already painful, but going down was a different kind of torture. I kept feeling like I might tumble down at any moment, and at one point I even thought rolling down might be faster! But that was just a thought. I still clung desperately to the rope and slowly made my way down one step at a time. I have no idea what position I was in as I went down anymore. I only remember trying very hard to make it down alive.
Besides the castle keep, there's also Genkyuen Garden, a daimyo garden next to Hikone Castle. Unfortunately, because it was winter, the garden scenery was rather plain. However, we unexpectedly came across a Japanese couple taking wedding photos. The bride was wearing an iro-uchikake wedding kimono and looked truly beautiful, which added another pleasant surprise to the trip.