Haikugirl's Japan

During Silver Week, I went to Kanazawa. Kanazawa is often likened to Kyoto, in that it has many ‘old’ areas, and I did think it was quite similar to Kyoto, both in the old areas and also in the modern areas.  However, unlike Kyoto, there’s no English guidebook (which is the case for most cities in Japan, except Tokyo and Kyoto).  However, I did find some useful information on the Kanazawa Tourism website, and there was a large Tourist Information centre in the station, with some information in English.  Actually, the city was very well equipped for foreign tourists, and I was surprised to find a lot of English everywhere, so travellers shouldn’t be put off by the lack of guidebook.

Kanazawa is not a large city, but it has a number of interesting tourist attractions.  The top attractions are probably:

• Kenroku-en (garden)
• Chaya districts
• 21st Century Museum of Contemporary Art
• Omi-cho Market
• Oyama Jinja (shrine)

I spent two nights in Kanazawa and could easily see all of these things with time to stop and taste the sushi! Kanazawa has a great bus system (much like Kyoto), which is pretty easy to use.  So I covered the city on foot and by bus (there’s no subway system, despite some very misleading entrances to the train station which look just like subway entrances!).

So, let’s look more closely at the tourist attractions of Kanazawa…

KENROKU-EN (Garden)

Kenroku-en is one of the most famous gardens in Japan, and when I told my friends and students I was going to Kanazawa, everyone replied with ‘are you going to Kenroku-en?’.  It’s a beautiful garden, and I imagine it’s even more beautiful in the spring cherry blossom season or the autumn coloured leaves season (I’ ve heard winter is also beautiful as it often snows).

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I was quite intrigued by the Dali-esque way many of the trees in the garden seemed to be propped up on crutches of some kind.

Prince Yamato Takeru

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Basho even wrote a haiku in Kanazawa in 1689.  あかあかと 日はつれなくも 秋 (あき) の風 (かぜ).  (Aka aka to. Hiwa tsure naku mo. Aki no kaze.)  I can’t begin to offer a good translation for this, but it something along the lines of “how brightly the sun shines, turning its back to the autumn wind”.  I think.  if you can offer a better translation, please leave me a comment!

CHAYA DISTRICTS

Kanazawa has three ‘Chaya Districts‘, or ‘teahouse districts’ which used to be places where you could go to be entertained by geisha.  They are: Higashi Chaya District, Nishi Chaya District and Kazue-machi Chaya District.  These days, they are mostly just tourist areas, but each Chaya District still some has operating teahouses, I believe.  I visited all three areas, and was quite impressed to see lots of old, well preserved buildings and interesting architecture.

Higashi Chaya District

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Nishi Chaya District

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Kazue-machi Chaya District

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I think my favourite of the three districts was probably Kazue-machi Chaya District.  This area is right by the river, and if you walk to the end of the teahouse area you can see an old wooden bridge, Naka-no Hashi, which I thought was pretty cool.

21st CENTURY MUSEUM OF CONTEMPORARY ART

The 21st Century Museum of Contemporary Art in Kanazawa is another place which many people recommended to me.  As someone who is interested in modern art, it was high on my list of places to visit.  It was a very interesting building, with a lot going on to keep the eye entertained, but I have to say the downside was that you did have to line up for a long time to pay to enter most of the exhibits.  I walked around for quite a while enjoying the free stuff, though.  However, when I saw the huge line of people waiting to pay to go into the rest of the museum, I have to confess I gave up and left.  Had it been less crowded, I would have loved to have gone round the whole museum.

Still, I did see some interesting art…

Klangfeld Nr.3 fur Alina by Florian Claar

These were dotted about all around the outside of the museum, and they acted like ind of telephones.  If you made a sound into one, you could hear it out of a different one!

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This huge sculpture made from found items was hanging in the centre of the entrance to the gallery.

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Fabulous wallpaper!

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The Swimming Pool – Leandro Erlich

Unfortunately you couldn’t get to the underneath part without paying.

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The museum was really cool, and I think if I lived in Kanazawa I would make an effort to go back there on a quieter day and pay to see the rest of the exhibits.  But in the middle of Silver Week, there were just too many people there!

OMI-CHO MARKET

I don’t know how high Omi-cho Market is on other people’s lists of places to visit, but personally I love visiting Japanese food markets!  There are always so much interesting food to see!  This market was very similar to Kyoto’s Nishiki Market, which I also really enjoyed visiting (twice!).

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OYAMA JINJA (Shrine)

Oyama Jinja is a very unique-looking shrine.  Quoting Wikipedia “This gate is a peculiar mix of traditional Japanese, Chinese, and European religious architectural elements. The gate is 25 m high including the lightning rod. The third floor is particular famous for its Dutch stained-glass windows. It is said that the third floor was also used as a lighthouse.“.  I couldn’t help looking at the structure without thinking it looked like the answer to “what do you get when you cross a shrine with a church?”

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OTHER ATTRACTIONS

Of course, there are many other things to see and do in Kanazawa other than those I have listed above.  So here are some more of the highlights of my trip…

Samurai houses: As well as the Chaya Districts, Kanazawa is famous for its samurai district, Naga-machi Buke Yashiki District.  This is an area where Samurai and their families used to live, and is now just a tourist area including samurai museums.

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Castle Park: Kanazawa has an area called Kanazawa Castle Park, but I have to admit that I didn’t think much of their castle (even Nagoya Castle seemed better to me!).  It was very small, but the grounds were pretty, and it was conveniently located right by Kenroku-en, so it’s probably worth a visit.

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Numerous temples and shrines: Of course, Kanazawa has a number of temples and shrines, and the best of these can probably be found in the Utatsuyama Temple Area, the Kodatsuno Temple Area and the Teramachi Temple Area.  One of the most famous temples is known as the ‘ninja temple’ (or, ‘ninja-dera’), but its name is Myoryuji Temple.  Unfortunately it seems you have to be a bit of a ninja to get into this temple, as reservations or long waiting periods are required. I stopped by, but it was packed with would-be-ninjas who had obviously had the foresight to call ahead, and was told I could enter after about 5pm, which meant at least a 2 or 3 hour wait!  So I didn’t go inside.

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Kanazawa also has a Higashi Betsuin Temple (as do a number of other places in Japan, including Nagoya).

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Confectionery Museum: I happened to spot ‘confectionery museum’ on my English map and, although I had no idea really what I would find there, I had to go along and check it out.  I actually think it might be one of Kanazawa’a hidden gems!

The museum displays a number of Japanese sweets (wagashi), and shows a bit of the making process.  Quite a lot of the sweets on display are actually the real thing, and are made fresh!

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These are edible…

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And this…

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Even this!

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Well worth a visit, only a few hundred Yen to get in, and there’s a cafe in the sweet shop downstairs, which serves fantastic tea and wagashi!

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Rivers: Kanazawa has two main rivers running through it: Asanogawa and Saigawa.  Both are beautiful, and both are worth a visit if you like that kind of thing.  Personally, I can’t get enough of rivers, sea, water… so I loved photographing them both!

Asanogawa

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Asanogawa

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Saigawa

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Saigawa

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Gold: Gold leaf is one of the things Kanazawa is famous for.  Gold can be found all over the city, but I was most curious to find it in the food!  It’s in the ice cream:

And it’s even in the cake:

I kind of wish I had bought something with gold in it to try now!  I should have had the 99 ice cream, but I was a little freaked out by the idea of having gold in my food!  Haha!

Kanazawa Station: The station itself is pretty normal, but there is a very impressive gate outside the station, which I think is worth a mention and a photo:

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Another thing which really tickled me at Kanazawa station was this amazing water fountain which welcomed you to Kanazawa and… told the time!  I still can’t quite figure out how it told the time, but I thought it was really neat!

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I think Kanazawa made a good weekend break from Nagoya.  Using travel agents such as JTB, you can get good deals on trains, hotels etc. and it doesn’t take too long to get there (less than 3 hours by JR train).  I think 3 days in Kanazawa is enough though, and if I had had any more time I would have had to consider day trips to other nearby areas.  However, Kanazawa does seem to be a lively city with a lot going on.  I was excited to find that on the weekend I went they were having a jazz festival called Jazz Street.  I caught bits and pieces of jazz as I was walking around and would have liked to have sought out some more gigs to be honest.  Still, what I did see was excellent, especially チャンチキトルネド (Chanchiki Tornado), who I saw playing around the station area:

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My whole photo set can been viewed on Flickr.