Hikone Castle

The walk to Hikone Castle in the heat was unbearable. Refuge was to be found in this cute bakery which drew Tawanda's eye and before I knew what was happening { 😉😏} I was sitting down at a table, tucking into a chocolate cake that tasted like a chocolate bar but not in a sickly way. Tawanda had opted for the strawberry cheesecake which looked equally as appealing and tasted really good. As it was so hot outside, we sat for a break in the cafe where we enjoyed our cakes with a side of air con.

 {Yes - I was too excited about the Peter Rabbit fork}

Before we reached the castle, we'd already decided that we were getting ice cream on the way back. The trip was quickly turning into a desert crawl but the main objective was soon upon us as we reached the castle. 

It is an impressive sight, especially when it's lit up at night. I didn't get to take a picture from far away but after many many steps, we reached the plaza just below and I got a few pictures with my favourite mascot and the castle in as the backdrop. 

With the hard part (or so we thought) over with, we wandered over to the Castle to look inside. Inside, we removed our shoes and made our way to the first floor. The stairs were steep but not too bad - we should have known it would be more stairs! The stairs on each floor just got steeper and steeper - until eventually, we were basically climbing a glorified ladder but the views were well worth it!

Once we'd safely navigated our way back down the ridiculous staircases, we went to cool down outside underneath a bamboo shelter with water mist sprays attached to the roof. 

I must have stood under the mist spray for at least five minutes before I notice the view that you could get from a little square on the edge. I decided to take a panoramic shot and since no-one was there, I decided to capitalise. I made it almost all the way around before a guy just walked straight up to where I was finishing my panoramic shot - I politely said excuse me in Japanese but he just continued to look gormless so I decided he would become part of the shot and here he is in all his glory.

On the way up to the castle - we saw a giant bell which was used to ring at certain times of the day. It still is rung at certain times and we just happened to be walking back down when it was about to start so as anyone in this post modern society, I took a video!

Bells

Of course, no day would be complete without doing a cut-out photo where my face is Hiko-nyan!

{Beautiful!}