Friday, September 13, 2013

I met "Hico-nyan" at Hikone castle - representative "Yuru chara" of Japan

"Yuru chara" is heartwarming mascot-like character that devised for PR purposes by local government.
Hico-nyan is Hikone city's Yuru chara. He's very popular in Japan that is born to promote Hikone caslte's 400th anniversary for castellation.

He looks a cat("nyan" means mew in Japanese) so I really wanted to meet him for long time and finally I had a chance to go to Hikone castle early this year.
  IMG_1197

There is a room for meeting to Hiko nyan. It said everybody needs to stand in line waiting to enter the room.
mjd?! 

But I didn't need to wait so long time. So many people sat down silently and waited for the moment.....
ひこにゃん登場を待つ人々 

He's comiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiinnnnnnnggggggg!!!!!
ゆるいwww 

He moved so slowly to make good photo opportunity.
 IMG_1243 

Can't you take a nice photo because of big audience? Don't worry, staff made us replace our position each other. Now there's nobody between Hiko nyan and me!
 Photo 

The biggest event is grooming by staff.
スタッフに毛づくろいしてもらうひこにゃん 

After meeting him, I walked up to see tower of the castle.
  IMG_1224

 The tower is great location overlooking Lake Biwako. It seems the sea.
  IMG_1198 

Under the castle, there is a japanese garden called "Genkyu-en".
 IMG_1232 

I had a tea at the tea room in the garden. I had Hikone's famous confection "Umore-gi" as snack to go with tea. It was fantastic.
  IMG_1200 

Information:

View Larger Map
Address 1-1 Konki-cho, Hikone, Shiga, Japan
Open 8:30 a.m. to 5:00 p.m.
Close None
Fee Adult: 600YEN(Including Genkyu-in)
Web site http://www.hikoneshi.com/en/castle/

No comments:

Post a Comment