We only had a day in Kanazawa, but it was one of the more interesting ones. First stop was Nagamachi, to visit a former samurai’s house, with a small but perfectly formed garden, and a museum of samurai armour and accoutrements
A stop at the Omi-cho market showed us how serious the Japanese are about…well, food 🙂 Especially the piscine kind
Then it was off to the Arts and Crafts museum, where you could easily spend an hour in the gift shop alone (and much money, which we did!) The area is famous for fishing flies, jewellery, glass and textiles, and the stuff on display made it clear its fame is justified.
(We bought two of these charming cat chopstick rests.)
And we hadn’t even had lunch yet! It was by now absolutely pissing down, and we were supposed to walk around Kenrokuen Garden, just then was at the height of the cherry blossom season and very beautiful. But rain! And it was cold, and I had, for the first time, left my damn waterproof in the suitcase. So I declined to walk around, spending the half hour drinking coffee and watching the rain tip down. Doug went, but he said the rain really made it hard to appreciate the gardens.
Lunch was at a restaurant in the gardens, and in the form of a picnic/bento box (but more than that, of course)
And then we had a quick, damp stroll around the district where the geisha live, mostly upstairs, downstairs in the houses having been turned into shops and tea shops:
Not terribly fascinating, but now we can say we’ve seen it. Then a train to Kyoto and the next post!
Oh, and I should mention this ‘water clock’ at Kanazawa station. Amazing 🙂