A great place to enjoy some shopping, with tableware, vases, sundry items, glass goods and gardening products all on offers, centered around the historical Shigaraki-yaki ceramics of Japan.

The hotel also features a planetarium with digital surround technology.

Experience authentic pottery making using a potter’s wheel and coloring ceramics.

Experience a quieter and deeper side of Japan at Guesthouse Ko-Rai-Gen, a private temple stay beside a 600-year-old Buddhist temple near Lake Biwa in northern Shiga.

The first museum in Japan devoted solely to figures.

Experience the traditional art of “kembu,” literally meaning “sword dance.

Humans have lived alongside waterways since ancient times, and you can still feel the roots of that lifestyle here, from Lake Biwa to the rivers and inner lakes, stone walls and common wells along the shoreline, the fishing industry and the vicinity of the sand dunes.

The large and extremely beautiful gardens that spread to the south of Enmanin-shinden Temple are a nationally designated Place of Scenic Beauty and Historic Site, and a visit is especially recommended during the changing of the leaves in fall.

A ski slope that also lets you look out over Lake Biwa, the largest lake in Japan, from a mountain peak at 1,174m.

This agricultural park is centered around wide flower fields, rose and herb gardens and greenhouses.

The Omi-Hachiman boat tour allows you to enjoy a different, natural world while riding a boat under the skillful control of a traditional boast master.

An English garden located in Maibara.

The principle object of worship here is a Buddhist image, normally withheld from public view, of Hobashira Kannon.

Water drawn from the river flows around the village, rich in volume and pure in content as it links to the inner lake, supporting the people living in the region and allowing you to feel how closely related our lives are to this precious liquid.

Take a tour around the school that was used as the setting for the popular anime “K-On!” There are also guided tours that allow you to see rooms and facilities that are not open to regular tours.

Sakamoto flourished as the temple town for Hieizan Enryakuji Temple, including the homes for monks from approximately 50 different temples, and the townscape retains the elegance of that history even today.

The “Okinahajimeshiki” is a divine service performed at Taga Taisha Shine to greet the gods at the start of the year.

The Gokasho Kondo is a region with strong links to the Omi Merchants, and has been designated a Preservation District for Groups of Traditional Buildings, as well as a Japan Heritage site in 2015.