Isn't Biwako's west shore great! How long ago was it that you rode along it? When I was there last week, there were some small villages that seemed pretty deserted, especially around the area where the bridge crossed the lake further north. I wondered if they were summer houses that were deserted when the economy went to crap, or if they were actually "disposable" villages built by Keihan to take advantage of a new bridge / tourist attraction. The amusement park at the base of the bridge looked as though it had been closed for a while... I wonder if they actually planned on that though, and made enough profit in the first couple years so that it paid off.

( I used to work for Keihan down in Shikoku at another tourist attraction below the Seto bridge. The year it opened it was booming, and cars were lined up all the way across the bridge to get in, but about 10 years later it was pretty much dead. That was in '95, when I went back to Shikoku for Golden Week, it was out of business.)

BTW, if you'll excuse some shameless self promotion, I put some of my photos of the area up too, unfortunatly they're not close to doing it justice. ( http://www.bastish.net/rememberwhen/000923.html#000923 )

Hooray for the west coast of Lake Biwa! One of these days I'm going to take a slow canoe trip around the Lake, camping as I go. There are so many beautiful spots on this coast...