Okishima

Japan has plenty of inhabited islands. Okishima is the only inhabited island in a freshwater lake, sitting off the eastern shore of Lake Biwa with around 250 residents, and the story of how they got there is specific: after the Hogen and Heiji disturbances of the 1150s, defeated Genji retainers are said to have hidden here, and a handful of surnames still dominate the village today.

There are no cars. The lane through the settlement is too narrow for one, so everybody rides an electric-assist bicycle, and the boats tied along the shore do the work a van would do anywhere else. It gives the island a sound level closer to a century ago than to Shiga prefecture.

The ferry from Horikiri port takes about ten minutes and runs a handful of times a day. Check the last one before you sail, because there is no accommodation and no way off outside the timetable.

What you do here is walk. One lane runs the length of the village between wooden houses with fishing gear stacked outside, up to a small shrine, and around to terraced plots on the slope. It takes an hour or two. There are a few places to eat lake fish, including funazushi, the fermented crucian carp that Shiga has been making for over a thousand years and that most Japanese people find challenging.

This is a working village and not a museum. People live in these houses, the primary school has a handful of pupils, and visitors who wander into gardens are noticed. Behave as you would in someone's street, because that is what it is.