Lake Biwa: Family Fun and Scenic Views
The kids find interest in vegetables for once!
The Experience - Day 1
We started with a Shinkansen down to Kyoto Station. We missed our scheduled train (I misread the itinerary and thought we left at the time we were supposed to arrive). This complicated some things as we weren’t able to have our reserved seating without paying additional 5,000yen per person, however we were allowed to take the train with the unreserved seating. As we left from Shin-Yokohama Station, the train already had quite a few passengers who started at Tokyo Station. We luckily found two empty seats a couple of rows apart. The train from Shin-Yokohama to Kyoto Station took 2 hours, stopping twice. The train does not have any snacks nor drinks on board (including water), so make sure you bring your own!
We stayed at the Prince Hotel Otsu. We were told prior to arrival that they had a service to drop bags off at Kyoto Station. This is a great service because it allowed us to grab lunch at the station and window shop before we headed on the train and shuttle to the hotel. We arrived at 11:00 am and the bags arrived at the hotel at 5pm.
Pretty hungry, we decided to walk towards what we thought was the subway station and ended up in a mall with a variety of souvenir shopping and restaurants. We chose the sushi option. This place had great service and great sushi at a fair price. We ended up with some lunch specials and left with full bellies.
We took the Biwako Line at the subway station in Kyoto three stops to Otsu Station. From there, the shuttle to Prince Hotel departs out the North exit every hour at :00 and :30. It is quite punctual! We were about 15 minutes early, so I grabbed the girls some ice cream treats from the nearby 7-11.
Upon arriving at the hotel, we walked down to the shoreline. There is no beach on this side of the lake. Every point of entry to the water is by huge boulders and the perimeter of the lake has gobs of seaweed. This didn’t stop the girls though! They spent about an hour making seaweed soup and playing on the boulders. We walked down quite a bit until we found the “train park” or more appropriately named Otsushi Asobinomori SL Park. We spent another couple of hours here playing with the local children until it was time for dinner.
We walked the opposite direction from the lake towards the main road (where there was a supermarket). Turn a left at the stop light and walk two more stop lights. Cross the main street and you will find a delicious ramen shop called Marugen Ramen. This place was great for kids! They had a kids menu and kids received a prize at the end of the meal. We had such relaxing first day in Biwako!
The Experience - Day 2
After eating breakfast on the 36th floor with a lake view, we took a cab over to Lake Biwa Museum. The 20 minute ride cost 6,000 yen. Make sure you get the name of a driver to call when you are ready to return as there aren’t many drivers in the area. Lake Biwa Museum was a great place to see the species living in the lake. From microscopic organisms to giant fish, we were able to see it all. They had a discovery room for kids as well that kept my kids entertained for an hour (and they wanted to go back). This requires a reserved card, so upon your arrival grab one that would suit your time schedule. We opted for the 12:00 time and had the entire room to ourselves as this is when most Japanese people eat lunch. We walked over to the aquarium and started from section 9 and walked our way backwards through the exhibits. There was construction stopping you from going from 2 to 1, but it happened to be the time for our discovery room reservation, so we headed back that way. After an hour in the discovery room, we headed over to the restaurant for lunch. The kids meals were great! They had hamburg, udon or croquette options each with chicken nugget, french fries, potato salad and jelly dessert. After lunch we headed back over to section 1 and then completed the Sky Walk with fantastic views of the lake. My youngest fell asleep so we decided to make our way over the Muzunomori Botanical Gardens.
The Muzonomori Botanical Gardens had activities indoor for kids such as crafts and educational talks. Check out the schedule upon arrival to see what is happening that day. We started by making a left upon the entry to the garden and went up the hill on the left to the green area which had a few animals to climb and a slide. I had a small ball and the girls played with that for a few minutes before we continued on our way. We walked the perimeter of the gardens enjoying the peacefulness and the lily pads. On the other side of the garden was another grass area where one could set up a picnic sheet for a small snack or grab an ice cream from the cafe to eat with the lake in view. Others, like my kids, would run up and down the grass hill full of giggles. We closed out the gardens with a soft serve ice cream before calling the hotel to ring a taxi.
We made our way back to the hotel around 4:30 and had a dinner reservation at Wurzburg at 6:30. A short 7 minute walk from the hotel was a lovely german restaurant that was quite large. The kids menu again was great with hamburg, sausage, french fries, bread and gummy bears. The night grew cooler and we had outdoor seating. The restaurant provided blankets, seat cushions and bug spray. The pretzel and schnitzel were fantastic.
The Experience - Day 3
Our last day in Biwako started with another fantastic view of the lake with breakfast on the 36th floor. We decided to ride the large cruise ship today. There was a 90 minute cruise that departed from the port outside of Prince, stopped at Otsu Station port, then looped around back to the Prince Hotel Port. This was a great option as it was near the hotel and since the tour ended for those onboard when we boarded, we were the only people on the boat during the transition at Otsu Station port. We started on level 3 where there was a concert. The kids got balloon animals. The concert lasted 10 minutes. We then went up to level 4 during the transition to take in the sites and some photos. We went back to level 2 where we decided to set up our area at a table near the red sternwheel. We grabbed a few snacks from the cafe on level 3 (although it probably would have been better to bring our own). The girls enjoyed the peaceful sounds of the paddle along with having the space to roam around where we could see them. Upon departure of the boat at 12:00, we headed back to the park.
We played at the park for another hour before we said Sayonara to one of the girls favorite parts of the holiday. We opted for lunch at the cafe at the hotel. Although the food was good, I think everyone would have enjoyed a conbini picnic near the water. We left the hotel at 1:45 to go to the station and arrived at Kyoto station by 2:15. We were still 3 hours early for our Shinkansen, so we had a snack at the cafe in the mall near the Sushi place. We discovered another area for snacks and food on the first level near the Shinkansen tracks. Once you check into the Shinkansen area, there is a waiting area, Starbucks and quite a few places to grab a bento or souvenirs. If you arrive early (like we did), there is quite a bit around to be able to pass the time.
We had such a lovely time at Lake Biwa. Although this is a 3 day itinerary, you could extend the trip by spending more time in Kyoto or traveling to the northern part of Lake Biwa near Hikone Castle or the Ropeway.
