8th – 10th of March – Tokyo – Kanazawa

The group met at 1745 (which ended up being 1800) in a small meeting room on the hotel’s top floor. I believe I’ve previously said that the tours with the highest average age have been the ones to the Arctic and Antarctic. Not anymore. We are still missing 3 people but most of the others present at the meeting seem to be retirees – a couple may be in the 50s, but that’s the youngest apart from me. Oh, well. Nice to feel young for once. It says in the tour description that you should be capable of carrying your own bags to and from stations and navigating sometimes busy stations and platforms. A few seemed shocked or even half panicked when this was briefly mentioned during the briefing. We are walking to the station tomorrow which is maybe 500m – they apparently took a cab when arriving. This could get interesting.

There is an area near the hotel with tons of eateries which our guide led us to and we slowly disappeared into our selected dinner places. An easy bowl of ramen + gyoza was my choice. Extra noodles for ¥10 (app. 0.44dkr/0.06 USD)? Don’t mind if I do!

There was even a huge camera shot in the area. I obviously had to take a look. So much interesting stuff I don’t have room for or can afford.

The following morning we checked out and met – including the 3 missing from last night – at 1100 where we were handed our rail passes. With the 3 newcomers I am no longer the youngest with a dad and his daughter in her 20s so the average has gone down slightly but is mostly countered by the two older people joining. We wandered to the station and chaos ensued. Apparently it confused several people how to use our rail passes in the access gates at the entrance but finally we all made it through – until it turned out two were missing; one had gone somewhere, his wife went looking for him, he returned, the guide went looking for her, she returned, and our guide passed right by her completely missing her until our collective yelling got his attention and got them through the gates, gathering us all again. Our guide had us park our bags so we could get some lunch for the 3-hour train ride to our destination. And finally we were all on the shinkansen, found our seats and on the way.

I really need more patience sometimes. 

 

Kanazawa station. Notice the small clock in the front; it's actually lines of small water spouts 

that get illuminated so they form the necessary numbers to show the current time.

We arrived in Kanazawa a few minutes late (what’s up with Japan’s otherwise renowned train-on-time precision??) and walked the 2 minutes to the hotel. We were all checked in around 1545 and an hour later we went out to find a place for dinner. 11 of us followed our guide to a local sushi place which turned out required a 1+ hour wait to get in. Quite popular but it is quite normal seeing people lining up outside restaurants waiting for a free spot. We did end up waiting almost double the time we were promised, but the food and company was worth it. 

 

Today's quiz: shower head or microphone?

Leaving the restaurant and returning to the hotel it had started snowing. The following morning it had stopped snowing (fortunately!) but there was still snow lying around though streets and sidewalks were mostly just covered in wet chunks. On top of the it was chilly with a very cold wind. We left the hotel at 0830 to visit the Kenrokuen Garden. The garden was a, well, typical Japanese garden; a patch of water, trees, lanterns, the occasional shrine and just a feeling of calm. Apparently as opposed to western gardens that are made to be aesthetic Japanese gardens are more focused on imitating the wild. The garden was (is) connected to the castle which is located across the street (which previously was a moat) but instead of seeing that afterwards we grabbed a bus to see the samurai quarter. 

 

Kenrokuen garden.

 

Many trees were tied up like this; it's for them to keep their shape, 

even when they get weighed down by snow.

 

Blooming trees.

Here the samurai lived during the Edo/samurai period. A lot of old buildings still standing and protected from being changed or removed. 

From here we went to the central fish market to have lunch – and there were plenty of other restaurants if fish wasn’t your thing. And needing something with a bit of substance after yesterday’s sushi I ended up with a pork katsu with rice and curry. Meeting with the group in front of the donut shop at the market obviously meant that I had to get a donut for lunch-dessert.

From there we headed on towards the geisha district. The town is apparently known for pottery and goldleaf art – the town is the source of more than 98% of all goldleaf used in Japan, made from gold imported as their own gold mines have run dry. The goldleaf central, which also means that pretty much every ice cream parlor in the city also lets you get ice cream covered in goldleaf. Because why not? Apart from old buildings (some still in use with traditional geisha shows; dancing and playing) we had a look at a few shops – one with paintings and pottery and one with goldleaf’ed products. The latter had a toilet where the walls in the woman’s were gold plated and the men’s were platinum plated. Not something you see every day. 

 

Geisha district.

 

Look, I don't normally take photos in the women's bathrooms, but if the walls are covered in gold? Duh!

From there the scheduled plan was technically over but those who were interested following the guide to the castle park where we had a walk around and having a look at the remaining buildings. Only 3 are original as the others either burned down due to lightning or just worn down. Due to political reasons any destroyed buildings were not rebuilt as not to appear as a threat to the imperial army, and instead they chose to focus on their skills in arts & crafts, giving them a lot of soft power. 

 

Kanazawa castle.

 

The castle park.

 

I ended up in the hotel around 1750 and 10 minutes later we were 6 people who met up for dinner. We ended up in a place with seats on the floor but holes in the floor which meant you sat as on a normal chair, but on the floor. Dinner was ordered and it was just whatever dishes that looked interesting on the menu which were brought to the table and shared among us all. It was extensive and delicious – and in the end much cheaper than expected.