Lake Biwa Travel Guide 🇯🇵 Hidden Gem in Shiga Prefecture Near Kyoto, Otsu, Japan Travel 2025

Hello from the Kyoto station. We're about to take the train to Otsu. Otsu? Otsu? Otsu. Today we're going to a little town called Otsu to try a slower side of Japan. We're taking the to Otsu. Information center. I don't usually get guide books like these but I feel like we don't So we just checked into Hotel Ku Otsu. Let's take a little room tour. Right when you enter you can leave your shoes over here. So from the hallway leads to this beautiful tatami line Japanese style room. Two very cozy luxe looking beds. There's a bedside ipad that you can use to get in touch with the reception. This is the view from the bedroom. It looks out into a tatami waiting room and beyond the waiting room there is a view of a private garden. And of course I love the very thoughtful details. Japanese sweets, tea, a little welcome wagashi. It's almost too pretty to eat. It has a little silver foil on it. It says that the drinks in the refrigerator are free. There's a little carrot juice, a mandarin juice, an asahi to warm up on a cold night. You know this is the way to open it. I think one of the most amazing things about this room is that you have your own private garden. And last but not least we have the bathroom. This is the wooden tab and the view of the garden. This is made from shiga, white and orange. Which one is your favorite? So it's our first night here in Otsu. Our hotel recommended we try this restaurant called Jinen. Their specialty is omi beef and they are serving us two wines to try that are made locally here in Shiga. This is an orange wine and a white wine and they are made from the Hitomi winery. The shiga wine's on. Cheers to our first night in Otsu. Cheers. Wow well this is really nice. You need to try this one. Well make it differently here in Shiga. The wine's kind of slapping. So this piece is the omi beef. It's a shank of roast beef and they made sure to stress that you need to chew it 30 times. So I wonder what this is gonna taste like. And then they also have a pate made with Japanese peppers or sancho and a steamed chicken with mushroom cream sauce to give you an idea of what the beef is like. It's cooked very rare. It's like having like a really thick jamon. It's similar to jamon. The texture is really different. It's very smooth. It's almost like a piece of sashimi and there's kind of a floral flavor to it too. I don't know if you taste the same thing as me. It almost tastes Spanish. So this is a platter of four kinds of charcoal grilled meat, mostly omi beef and seasonal roasted vegetables from the Shiga prefecture. This is number one. This is number two. Number three is kainomi in Japanese. Number four is shiso. Today's roasted vegetables we have yurugi, red turnip, purple daikon, broccoli, cauliflower, colorful carrot, golden beet, sancho, onion. Here's to steaks on the vlog. Omi beef tendon curry with rice. It looks really spice filled. It kind of tastes Indian. Very good. Oh there's a spice to it and the beef itself is very soft. I think the beef tendon is a perfect part to make into a curry. I like curry so by default I should like this. Ohayou gozaimasu from Hotel Co. As you can see we've changed into our PJs. Otsu style pajamas. So for this trip we've partnered with Hotel Co. in Otsu for our stay. They've let us stay in this beautiful renovated machiya. This one in particular used to be a tea house. It's so beautiful. I don't think we've ever stayed in a place where the view from the bedroom leads straight into a Japanese garden. It's one of the most relaxing stays we've had. A really nice break from Kyoto which was a little overstimulating. We're staying in Otsu for two days. We're going to be exploring the neighborhoods. This house in particular is located on the old Tokaido road which used to connect Tokyo to Kyoto. It was traditionally the last stop on people's journey. It's located right by Lake Biwa. Otsu used to be like this port city. We had that in mind that we sort of wanted to revisit that old style of Japan. Had our eyes on it for a few years now. We sort of wanted to reenact that old traveler itinerary. Like you said we're sort of recreating the way that people used to travel with little stopovers in small towns that are more relaxing. Just a way to refresh yourself before you move on to another big town. After this we'll be going back to Osaka, bigger cities, a lot going on. So for us this is a really well-deserved break and helping us realign ourselves. And we're so thankful to Hotel Cove for letting us stay here. It's been such an amazing experience and I can't One of the best views here of any hotel we've stayed in. It's the most ninja I've felt to be honest. You just have to watch your height. So from our building we're walking over to the main building to have breakfast. Today we're having breakfast at Hotel Cove. A beautiful set breakfast for us made with fresh ingredients from So you're supposed to start off your meal with some veggie juices. Organic carrot and apple juice. The first set of side dishes has yuba and cognac. So beautifully prepared. It's called a sukudani and it's made with eel, cucumber, shiso, and ginger. Everything has been simmered in soy sauce, sugar, and sweetened sake. Put everything on top of the rice. Comforting way to start your day here in Otsu. Since we're going on tour this morning, I'm gonna have some coffee before we leave. I'm Yoko from the concierge from Hotel Cove Otsu Hyakucho. And I'm doing a tour for the guests. It's nice to meet you. In the Edo period, the government made the five big streets in Japan. And the number one is the Tokaido street. And point A is Kyoto. And Otsu is here, point B. And so Tokaido street connects Tokyo and Kyoto. This is the Tokaido street in front of the building you stayed last night. And between Tokyo to Kyoto, there were 53 stops. And Otsu was the last station before Kyoto. And now Otsu is not very popular city because I think Kyoto is too popular. Otsu is only nine minutes from Kyoto station. I think Otsu is too close from Kyoto. But in Edo period, there were many tourists from all over Japan because we had the Tokaido street. A lot of people walked down the Tokaido street to get to Kyoto. People traveled with horses. It's a long way, so people got dirty. So before they go to Kyoto, people changed their dress completely here in Otsu. Can you pronounce it ko? Ko. Ko. Yes. K-O-O is usually used. Ku, yeah. In the Philippines, you would say ku. Yes, and we say ko. Does it mean something? Oh yeah, the ko means, you know, people get at one place, it means ko. The building of the castle and it stands in the lake. On Saturday, hikiyama stops at the houses and people play the musical instrument on the top of the hikiyama. This is very old, you know, Japanese sweet shop. It goes with coffee very well. Do you have a favorite? Yeah, I love pistachio. This one? Yeah. What's the difference? It's strawberry. This one is mochi, so it's more chewy. What do you think is nice? I like this. Do you want to buy one? And we carry the mochi to other houses. We use it. It's like a two-phase backpack. Yes, it is made of shells, so it is very expensive. We use it only for the special occasion. Imagine when people stopped over here, they would grab some snacks. Yes, that's right. They didn't have pistachio mochi. We have a lot of Japanese sweet mochi in this area. This is a very old teapot. Kaori. Kaori? Yes. Kaori ga ii. Kaori ga ii. Yeah, ii means good. Kaori ga ii. Ii ne. Yes. Some people taste this tea. Someone said it smells salty, but another people say it's very sweet. So, this tea has a very complicating taste. Yeah, I think so. Do people usually have it with tea? Yeah. 1858. As for tea, Kyoto is very famous, especially Uji is a very famous place, but Uji and Asamiya was a very popular place. We can have the finest tea leaves. It's the same mountain, and Kyoto side, we call it Uji, and Shiga Prefecture side, we call it Asamiya. The good soil, that's why we can grow up the good tea leaves. We're married? We look at the far, this one looks more nice. Thank you very much. Protein. This is my first time. Ralph and Sam. There's ducks. Is this what we are supposed to eat? Thank you. Musk and eel? Eel. Shiga Biwako cider. Good morning from Otsu. We are checking out finally. We really enjoyed staying at this beautiful renovated machiya. Do you have any thoughts about our Otsu stay? I don't think I've ever slept better than our past two nights here. The past few days it was really relaxed. You mentioned renovated machiya. We basically did a renovated machiya tour of the city, because a lot of these machiyas scattered around the city have transformed into restaurants, izakayas. You know, you guys will love Otsu because of that feel. We tried the best Omi beef steak at a renovated machiya. We stayed at the renovated machiya, dined in a renovated machiya. We had drinks in a renovated machiya. We went full circle here. Amazing to see the transformation of the city slowly by slowly. Ralph the Rambler. What was your favorite thing that we did here in Otsu? Definitely staying at this hotel. You know, smelling the wood, sleeping in an all wood room with the tatami floors. I didn't realize I enjoyed tatami so much. It's so cool because there's three layers from the garden all the way to the bedroom and it gets gradually darker as you close it off. It's been such a nice experience. You really get a feel of old Japan in this town, I think. They really preserve that feeling. It used to be a very popular destination. I hope more people give it a chance. Yoroshiku onegaishimasu from the both of us and see you in Osaka. Staying till the very last stir-fried jam. This one is so good. It's very nice. And they're freshly made. Yeah. Mushroom. It has maitake mushrooms and some other Japanese mushrooms. Why don't you take a bite? Sausage. You can read their fortunes. It's in? Yeah. It's a salon with pottery.