After a wonderful 5 nights in Kyoto, we picked up our rental car and
drove 4 hours to the northern port city Kanazawa. Kanazawa is re-knowned
for its seafood and Mike, in particular, was excited to partake in some
of the delicacies. The kids were excited about sampling gold-leaf ice cream!
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| Gold-leaf ice cream |
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| Eating gold?! |
We stayed right in the hub of this
city of a half million people. We had great access to a sight-seeing
hop-on-hop-off loop bus route- perfect for our 1 day here.
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| Stretching legs after arriving to Kanazawa |
We
were in Kanazawa on Hallowe'en so the kids wore matching canadiana
clothing and went as 'Canadians' for the day. Despite seeing
decorations and groups of kids and teens in costumes sporadically in the
week leading up to October 31st, we didn't see any costumes the day of.
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| Heading out for a day of sight-seeing |
We
started our day at the Omicho market, otherwise known as 'the
kitchen of Kanazawa'. Locals and tourists alike were buying fresh fish,
local produce and crafts. A young japanese couple saw the kids' shirts
and came over to chat. Born and raised in Tokyo, they have lived in PEI
for the past decade. They were happy to see fellow Canadians in a less
visited area of Japan! Turns out, the young woman is a chef at one of
our favourite restaurants in North Rustico, PEI- the Blue Mussel Cafe! This couple later sought us out at the market with Hallowe'en candy for
the kids. A neat way to start the day!
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| Fish, fish and more fish |
Still kicking!
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| Check out the cost of grapes- ~$20 for a small amount |
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| Hallowe'en candy Japan-style |
We went on to
enjoy a guided tour of the Kanazawa Castle, building on the japanese
history lesson we took in at the Samurai Musem in Kyoto. The castle
grounds are free for the public and a popular lunch spot- though there
are no garbage cans so everyone must pack out what was brought in. We
took advantage of the beautiful sunshine and open space to burn some of
the kids' energy by playing some frisbee. We definitely got a few
looks!!
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| Kanazawa castle |
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| There were hidden spy windows on the inside that were invisible from the outside |
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| Frisbee at a castle |
Our touring day continued with visits to an old
geisha neighbourhood, an old samurai neighbourhood and one of Japan's
'top 3 most beautiful gardens'. The gardens were okay but not as nice as some of the ones we have back home. We were disappointed,
especially with the admission fee we had to pay!
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| A traditional geisha neighbourhood |
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| Higashi Chaya neighbourhood |
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| Narrow streets |
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| Nagamachi Samurai District |
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| A step back in time |
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| Kenroku-en Gardens |
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| Lots of moss |
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| The oldest fountain in Japan |
We all enjoyed Kanazawa and wish we had had more time to explore other areas of this city!
Our
day finished with 2 interesting experiences- 1) an authentic homemade
sushi dinner served by an older man who spoke absolutely no English. Stay
tuned for Mike's post.
2) After this unique dining experience, we
happened upon a hip hop class of elementary kids doing a performance in
front of the bus station. They were all smiles and many proud parents
were clapping and videotaping. Nothing out of the ordinary...except the
song they were dancing to was the most explicit song Mike and I had ever
heard. We exchanged giggles with a couple of other English-speaking
tourists and tried to explain to the kids why a song with so much
swearing was blaring publicly in the middle of the street!!
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| The time displayed in a water fountain |
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