7 spots โ sorted by traveller rating
Hikone Castle โ one of Japan's four National Treasure castles and the best preserved โ sits on a hill above Lake Biwa surrounded by 1,200 cherry trees, creating one of the country's finest castle-with-blossoms panoramas. The complete castle complex includes a daimyo garden (Genkyuen) designed to reflect the castle keep in its central pond, and a moat walkway.
Shirahige Shrine's signature vermilion torii gate stands directly in Lake Biwa's shallow water just off the western shore road, creating a composition so reminiscent of Miyajima's famous gate that it earned the same nickname. At dawn, with mist rising from the lake and the gate catching the first light, the view is extraordinarily peaceful. The shrine itself, dedicated to the god Sarutahiko, is one of the oldest on the lake and is free to visit.
The Miho Museum is one of Asia's architectural masterpieces: designed by I.M. Pei and opened in 1997, it is built almost entirely underground in a cedar mountain, accessible via a 163-metre suspension bridge that emerges from a tunnel into sudden panoramic forest views. The collection spans ancient Egyptian, Greek, Roman, and Asian art assembled by the Koyama family, displayed in daylit underground galleries of extraordinary refinement. Admission is ยฅ1,300 and advance reservations are advised.
Hikone Castle is one of only four castles in Japan designated a National Treasure, retaining its original 17th-century keep in near-perfect condition above a mirror-still moat. The admission of ยฅ800 includes the Genkyuen Garden, a small Edo strolling garden with a pond that reflects the castle's white tower. The surrounding park's 1,000 cherry trees make it one of western Japan's finest blossom destinations each late March.
Chikubushima is a tiny sacred island in the northern part of Lake Biwa reached by a 30-minute ferry from Nagahama or Hikone for around ยฅ3,000, revered as the dwelling of the goddess Benzaiten and one of Japan's three great Benzaiten sites. The island's Tsukubusuma Shrine and Hogonji Temple are built almost entirely over the water, with a celebrated kawarake toss tradition where visitors throw clay discs through a torii gate to earn a wish. The island's dense forest and clifftop shrine buildings feel entirely otherworldly.
Nagahama on the northern shore of Lake Biwa was a castle town developed by Toyotomi Hideyoshi and is now celebrated for a concentration of artisan glass studios alongside preserved merchant streetscapes. The Black Wall Square district houses a dozen glasswork galleries in converted kurazashiki storehouses, where visitors can watch glowing glass being blown and shaped. The adjacent Kuromon Market sells fresh Lake Biwa fish, local black soybeans, and regional pickles.
Azuchi Castle was Oda Nobunaga's revolutionary 1576 fortress, the first Japanese castle designed as a statement of power rather than a military refuge, with a seven-storey golden keep visible across Lake Biwa. It burned in 1582 three weeks after Nobunaga's assassination and was never rebuilt, but the towering foundation stones and precisely fitted stone walls climbing Mt. Azuchi remain hauntingly impressive. The ruins are free to explore and the hilltop summit offers sweeping lake views.
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