Experiencing Kanazawa omotenashi and gold

Breakfast was included and it was sucha  luxury. We had a choice of 2 settings: a buffet breakfast or a Japanese breakfast. 

Since we had 2 nights we started with the Japenese breakfast on the 6th floor restaurant, and it was served in a beautiful luminous dining hall with a small Japanese garden growing in the middle of the building. Our meal arrived in a big 3 level tier box served with miso soup, and it was such a pleasure for the sight and palate. Around us there were more buffet choice of western cuisine (including spaghetti, beans, fried rice, sausages, etc..) . We ate like kings and queen before eventually venturing outside to explore Kanazawa. I was excited in finding this city because it has all the interesting sights: a top of Japanese garden, a samurai houses district, tea houses district, and gold leaf craft. Not to forget the proximity of the sea to provide an abundance of fresh seafood. Our program of the day included all that.

To start we had a rather sunny weather, and we took every opportunity to bask in it. 

 

At the JR train station we took a loop bus that would take us to the first area closest to the hotel, the Nagamachi district (full name Nagamachi Buke Yashiki district). The area of interest was not at the bus stop but a short walking distance between modern commerce. 

Once inside the area, there were high walled streets, and small shallow canals (luxury ditches) between grand old residences. 

 

Historical restroom

 We visited the Nomura museum (Nomura-ke) which was really grand with a cute poetic Japanese garden, and architectural features that made me very envious: wooden facade, garden opening, stone bridge.

 

 

Butsudan (family altar)

Pretty flower display in the tokonoma alcove

 

Basically they were displayed the way they were lived in, with cleaned tatami rooms, with the family altar (butsudan), tokonoma delicately decorated for the season. Visitors would shuffle from room to room, after leaving their shoes at the shoe storage at the entrance.

We tried to re-enact a tea ceremony in one fo the rooms, but alas, the tea was never served and we had to shuffle out for other visitors to express their hopes.

With our eyes satisfied and heads full of glorified samurai daily lives and routines without their armours, we continued our exploiration toward the famous Kenrokuen (兼六園) garden. Like Okayama's Korakuen garden, Kenrokuen was constructed by a local ruling feudal lord (the Maeda family) and is famed for being stunning at each season.

We were aiming for some spring blooming trees and bushes, and although a few plum blossoms were contrasting against the suddenly grey sky, the rest of the trees hadn't started yet. However as the plum trees were clustered in the south corner of the garden, it gave us and other visitors who made effort to dress or rent kimonos to take beautiful shots of the late beginning of spring.

Kenrokuen map

 

 

 

 

The garden is also know for the trees that are supported by long sticks on each side, to protect them from toppling over when full of snow in winter.

There was a lantern that seemed to grant wishes as visitors tried to stick coins on its facade.

There was also a large pond with koi fishes but we stayed away from the water as it was cold again when the sun went away. So we walked on across the garden and the bridge to the castle to take in the view.

 

We got the bus back to continue to the farthest part of our Kanazawa exploration, to one of the tea house district, Higashi Chaya district. Tea houses were for classic entertainment, with geisha performances. However far from being overcrowded like Kyoto, it was very quaint and the tea houses architecture in display and used for various shops and easy access drinks establishments. The quarters were accessed conveniently after the bus stop, across a bridge that seemed to symbolically relay the daily lives and the excitement of the teahouses. Before the bridge and along the river Asanogawa, the first row of houses were the perfect destination for period photo, or goofy ones. There was also a hidden garden and really small alleys between houses that made you forget the traffic on the main road just a few meters away.

 

 

 

It was mid afternoon and the rain suddenly poured on us as soon as we crossed the bridge. We barely had time to admire the architecture of the houses lining the winding uphill street, before we plunged into what looked like a tea house. They were displaying fabric crafts such as chopsticks covers, but mainly we we found out, they were selling sake.

 

 

And so to avoid the rain, we sampled some interesting local sake, in exquisite glassware. In the confinement of this establishment, it was easy to forget about debt, heartbreak or leg tiredness. They also managed to sell me some concoction with turtle, for health, which I brought to Manila.

Eventually though we escaped and found the rain stopped, leaving behind glistening stone paved streets. 

 We passed by a golden house (Ougon no Kura) which outside wall was entirely covered in gold leaves. The house illustrated the specialty of Kanazawa, gold leaf. Many shops were selling gold leafs booklets, gold leaf ice creams and sake. I bought 2 tea cups with different gold designs 

 

We took in the atmosphere of the streets one last time before heading for the hotel for a well deserved rest. I enjoyed watching the sunset from my hotel room,  after a nice hot shower.

 

We didn't really want to go far for dinner after the long walk of the day. We could not have lunch on snow crabs at the famed Omicho market, so we hopped we could get some nice food around the hotel or train station. In the elevator we noticed the basement we could not decipher.  It turned out to be an area of service, with shoe polish, dry cleaners, and a few restaurants. And so we found our dinner.

After which, we hit the bar on the 30th floor, the appropriately called Sky lounge bathed in dim lights from inside that accentuated the outside city lights. I had a local whisky on the rocks (divinely smoked) and got tipsy. The seat was real comfortable and the dim light helped me get sleepy again.

We seemed to be among the few ones still up, save for an older Caucasian couple. Soon my sight and memory blurred, and I only vaguely remember agreeing for the time for breakfast the next day.

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High lodging in Kanazawa

We left glittering lights of Tokyo around 19:30 with the Hokuriku shinkansen to Kanazawa that Monday evening. We made sure to grab some eye catching ekiben from the station befere lining up nicely on the train platform.

I noticed the name of the train (Hayabusa) on the photo was the same name as the robot launched by JAXA who managed to land on an asteroid in space. Imagine the computations involved as if to land a dust on a flying insect. This was not our train though. Ours was the second one, the Kagayaki (かがやき), and it means bright, radiance or sparkly.

Like many shinkansen trips, my first instinct, transferred to J&R was to comfortably sit down enjoying the bright light outdside, and to eat the carefully picked ekiben, followed by a short nap. For me this was the definition of traveling in style in Japan.

 Arriving aroun 22:30 in Kanazawa, we were glad the hotel was just outside the station, maybe 5min walk on the station ground and a road to cross. We checked in and admired the grand lobby of the impressive Hotel Nikko Kanazawa, and I even wondered how we could afford such luxury on our budget. But it was all within the limits of the budget as we saved some yens somewhere else during the trip. I was convinced.

I usually asked for high floors accommodation despite all the UN security trainings I went through, and our rooms had a wonderful view of the city skyline, which were mainly below our hotel, as it seemed to be the highest building in town.

Harajuku dreams and Shinjuku sakura

 Following up on the Yamanote line, the green line that we tourist adore, as we aimed to visit 3 landmarks on the west side (Shibuya, Harajuku, Shinjuku), I could not resist taking them to schoolgirl mecca for some reason so we walked from Shibuya crossings to Harajuku's Takeshita-dōri. And from the get go we went into full puricula mode. We did 3 of them after having some trouble understanding what to do. They turned out superb and memorable, in the style of this one.

 And we also queued for the choux creme - churros snack at zakuzaku, which always cracks me up as it means 'me too me too' in Malagasy.

After lunch we continued on to Shinjuku to briefly check out the Metropolitan government building and its surrounding architecture.We could not really go up since we had scissors with us but the sunset casting its orange lighting was pretty enough.

Luckily for us as well we got to see our first sakura in the sunset, amidst a concrete forest.

Soon it was time to go back our hotel to grab our things and take our first Shinkansen leaving the eastern capital for Kanazawa, on the west coast of Honshu island. The shinkansen route was new that year and took 3hours.

Professional shopping in Shibuya

The next morning, we woke up like acclimatized salarymen and salarywoman, to hit Shibuya. J. has an errand to run in the area and I was somehow fascinated by his work. It made sense to look for Japanese made scissors since they have a tradition of making knifes and swords.

And so we headed for Shibuya and found the shop, but it was not opening until 10am and we had a little less than an hour to wait. So we camped among the workers dressed in suits and waiting for their meetings or interviews in the nearby Starbucks. It was a bit comfortable and disorienting for me as it was my first western chain I used in Japan (other than McDonalds in 2009).

We people watched as the morning advanced, and finally we climbed the stairs to the small showroom. I didn't know scissors could be that expensive (300$-500$), and I also didn't know there were different kind of scissors. So it was very interesting to see the different types and very technical terms as well that I could not remember. There was even a mannequin head to try how they cut on the wig. Unfortunately I had just cut my hair but I would have loved to get my hair cut by J.Sadly I forgot to take any pictures.

Anyway I think he settled for 2 items, one for him and another for a colleague. There was a discussion about how he was going to transport them because they were so valuable but not really suited for cabin luggage. The shop offered to send them but J. preferred to take them.

After the compulsory shopping out of the way, we had out day to play around town, for more compulsive spontaneous shopping. Shibuya station was being renovated but Hachiko statue was not crowded and well visible.

 Somehow the streets were quiet and we had our chance viewing of Super Mario cart wiz by the station as we waited for the pedestrian lights to turn green.

We crossed the famous 4-6 way pedestrian crossing and proceeded to the shops.

We visited 109, a landmark in the area, and visited all the floors. I got myself a blue and red maxi dress and a striped top, marveling at my luck finding something I could fit in. We also visited 109 Mens and the guys also found something to their likings and we all were seriously happy to see so many items we usually did not see or even imagine.

Starting with Shitamachi-Asakusa and some depato visit

I suppose there were not much jet lag as we managed to get breakfast and plan for the day ahead. We first had to go exchange our JR pass vouchers in Tokyo Station as they need to see our passports to see whether we are overseas visitors. I also took the train schedule for Kanazawa for the next day so that we could plan the next day visit.

Since we were in the station, we popped into Daimaru Tokyo Station Daimaru for some serious errand. J. was asked to bring some Suqqu make up for his colleagues, and for the first time I discovered the brand and the second floor of Daimaru. We probabbly toured all the floors as everything looked exotic to me. But eventually i was back in familiar territory, the basement floor with all the food samples.

By late lunchtime we were already in nearby Asakusa, looking for serious food. Somehow the building with the red and blue cup became my unofficial landmark.

Despite the rain and the cold, it was a nice walk, and I even indulged into looking into souvenir shops, trying to think hard what else I didn't have already. At some point I believe the thought of beer drove the guys into a shop, which had an advanced touchscreen ordering system in several languages. We ordered too much and ate like 6, but it was all to start another long walking afternoon so we stocked up on energy.

Indeed we did all the shops lined up on Nakamise dori, in front of Senso ji temple.  It was not too crowded for a Sunday (thank you weather?) and I was tempted more than once to get more sandals and fans. But what I was looking for and could not find 2 years before was an incense burner. I was a bit shy however to enter the incense shops as they looked very formal and gave off an air of ... burial ceremony.

We managed to get to a small shrine to ring the bell, clap and bow before returning to the crowded strets.

 

Anyway, we window shopped and walked and enjoyed the energy surrounding the area. While I wasn't looking, the guys went into otaku mode in front of some knife shop.

 

I was hoping we could visit some sword and knife shops in a quieter area as the crowded atmosphere vaguley reminded me of a drunken Halloween party in 1999...

Moving on, we did not forget to snap a photo with the kaminarimon chochin.

 

We walked quite a bit in Shitamachi, away fromt he crowd and along the Sumida river, seeing the Kiring buidling cross the Sumida river and enjoying the old neighbourhood with all their flowerpots outside. Later in the afternoon, our steps brought us back to

Since we were a few stations from Akihabara, I thought I should let them experience the craze of the place.

 

However it was nearing dinner time and as we got out of the station, a multifloor mall immediately attracted our attention so that none of the mandrake building was out of our sight. We grabbed a drink in a cozy english pub with lovely chandeliers, and had delicious Japanese food (maki and gyoza) ...without being in a maid cafe.