Haikyo – Biwa Tower

My next haikyo wasn’t hard to find. In fact everytime I’d travel down to Kyoto I’d see it from the window of the train. The colourful little cabins clearly visible against the blue sky.

The biggest mystery about this place is why the owners decided to call a ferris wheel ‘Biwa Tower’?

Maybe his blatant misrepresentation had something to do with why it went out of business – thousands of angry visitors turning away feeling cheated as they realised there was no tower.

The real reason ‘Biwa Tower’ went bankrupt isn’t difficult to spot really; location, location, location.

Despite being right beside the beautiful Lake Biwa it’s also squeezed between an access ramp to a big commuter bridge and an ugly multi story carpark (that you have to navigate around to get under the wheel). It’s not a very nice place, and maybe it was only built so that estate agents could write sales copy like this –

Attractions:
From the top of ‘Lake Biwa Tower'(Otsu City), visitors can enjoy a panoramic view of the city. The area also holds one of the largest ferris wheels in the world.

That text is still live on one real estate site despite this place clearly having been closed for years. There might not be any panoramic views anymore, but there’s rust and verdant growth.

There’s also the remains of a couple of other attractions, like an old water ride behind the wheel, the cars from which have been scattered around the dodgems ring, and a ‘Fortune Tellers’ stand – I wonder if she saw the inevitible closure of this place coming?

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