Hikone Castle Illuminations

When you think of the word illuminations, what's the first thing that pops into your head? If you're from Britain, I bet it's Blackpool!

At the moment, Hikone castle is being lit up and for one weekend only, they have lit the gardens too and you can stroll around at night with a little lantern to enjoy the view of the beautiful serene gardens with the castle lit up nearby. 

Amy had seen an event posting for this (it's so handy having a friend who can speak and read Japanese) and invited me along. I was so glad that we got to go because it was stunning. At first, we thought it was just the side of the castle that would be lit up, so when we arrived and couldn't find our way up to the castle, we wandered over to the gardens and asked for directions to the main lights. At the entrance to the gardens, you couldn't really see the inside so we didn't know what was in store for us when we decided to go in later but we almost didn't.

I was so glad that we decided to go.

First though, we had headed out to the main castle's surrounding walls which had emblems lit up on them. We took some nice photos there but we felt a little let down as we'd thought there was going to be an illuminations show on the actual castle.

 {The emblems on the outside walls - you can just about see the castle in the right picture}

 {The lights changed colours from warm reds and oranges, to cold blues slowly over a few minutes}

{Lighting at the bridges over the moat to the castle that we found whilst trying to find the emblem illuminations}

We discussed whether to call it quits but made the decision to go to the gardens and pay the entrance fee.

I knew it had been a good decision as soon as they handed us Hiko-nyan paper lanterns on the end of wands to carry round with us.

Then, we rounded the corner.

As we walked into the gardens, we could hear music being played. It turned out it was live Koto players which made a beautiful backdrop to the scenery. Sadly, my phone camera just doesn't do it justice but it was really magical being in the garden at night with everything lit up.