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Kanazawa- Japan

By Cheryl
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!

Gold-leaf ice cream
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.


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.

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!

Fish, fish and more fish

Still kicking!

Check out the cost of grapes- ~$20 for a small amount

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!!

Kanazawa castle

There were hidden spy windows on the inside that were invisible from the outside

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!

A traditional geisha neighbourhood

Higashi Chaya neighbourhood
Narrow streets
Nagamachi Samurai District


A step back in time






Kenroku-en Gardens

Lots of moss

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!!

The time displayed in a water fountain


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