Mount Hiei

The Garden Museum features spectacular views of Lake Biwa, garden flowers, art galleries, a cafe, large outdoor reproductions of famous works of French Impressionism, and a lily pond with arched bridge that aims to replicate the Japanese garden designed by Claude Monet in Giverny, France and featured in many of his late paintings. It also houses the grave of Saichō (Dengyō Daishi) the founder of Japan's Tendai Buddhism, and attracts many Japanese bush warblers (uguisu). The entrance fee is ¥1000 for adults, ¥500 for children.

The temples on Mt. Hiei are collectively known as Enryaku-ji, literally "Long Calendar Temple". The large complex is generally divided into three sections known as the Eastern Pagoda (東塔 Tōdō), the Western Pagoda (西塔 Saitō) and Yokawa (横川); neither of the pagodas actually exist any more, but the names live on. Most of the better-known temples are concentrated in the Eastern Pagoda area.

The central hall of the temple. It contains the Inextinguishable Dharma Light (不減の法灯), a fire that has been burning for 1200 years. There is always a monk assigned to tend the fire and chant sutras here.

There is a station near the top of the Sakamoto Cable run called Motateyama. Walking a few hundred meters from this stop will bring you to a monument which has been erected to the memory of Bruno Petzold, a German Tendai Bishop and scholar who lived in Japan until his death in 1949.

As the head temple of Tendai Buddhism, a wide variety of artwork has been produced and acquired by Enryaku-ji Temple. This museum was built to showcase some of the many artifacts owned by the temple. The Buddhist statues are particularly interesting.