Chikubu Island on Lake Biwa

Hi,

I will be in Japan in May and this will be my 3rd trip there so I am fairly used to travel within the country. I am planning a day trip from Kyoto to visit Chikubu island in the morning after paying a quick visit to Nagahama, and then head to Hikone to visit its castle and park in the afternoon.

The island can be reached from Nagahama and Hikone via ferries and each route is operated by different companies, but as far as I undestand from their Japanese websites one can only buy rountrip tickets which means, if I am not mistaken, that it is just impossible to reach the island departing from one port (Nagahama) and leave the island headed to the other (Hikone). I am looking for confirmations about this because I would like to avoid transferring from Nagahama to Hikone on a train.

Alternatively I could just forget about Nagahama and do a roundtrip from/to Hikone, but the port is quite distant from the station and I would like to avoid taxis so I am looking for information about public transportation within Hikone but got no luck so far. Does anyone have hints about buses or alike from Hikone Station to the port?

Thanks in advance!

If you are taking their cruise, there is a 10 min free shuttle between Hikone JR station and the boat pier. At the bottom of the webpage below click on 彦根 - 竹生島 (往復) to see the schedule and a map.

http://www.ohmitetudo.co.jp/marine/index.php/line-tour/chikubushimameg...

This operator has ferries which depart Nagahama, stop on the island, and then go to Imazu port (near JR Omiiimazu station). You can then reach Hikone by train.

http://www.biwakokisen.co.jp/basic/index3.php

They have an English website, but this trip is not mentioned on it. You could probably use the English inquiry form to ask about it, however.

Ah, never mind, Hikone is on the same side of the lake as Nagahama. No wonder there are no ferries connecting the two, then.

@William5
I completely missed the info about the free shuttle bus, thank you very much! When leaving the JR station from the west exit, the bus stop is on the left. Now I wonder how to reach the main entrance of the castle grounds from the boat pier once I returned from the island, but I guess catching a taxi is the best way to avoid wasting time in this case.

@Firas: Well sure I was not expecting a planned route by some operator, more like I was wondering if it was possible to buy a one-way ticket at the port and then buy another ticket heading to a different port directly on the island. But thinking again, the island is tiny so not having manned counters there makes sense :)

It is about 15 min walk from the pier to the castle ground.

http://goo.gl/maps/ENgEC

@William5

Whoops, did not notice the bridges over the moats on that side of the castle grounds :-) Also, I was under the impression that combined tickets for Genkyu-en + castle donjon + castle museum were being sold only at the Omote-mon entrance but judging by street view there's a ticket booth selling them at the Kuro-mon entrance too.

Once again, thank you!