Kanazawa

We arrived in Kanazawa last Monday and poked around a little bit.  This city of about 500,000 people is known for rain.  It reminded us both of Seattle in other ways too.  The downtown, which we stayed  in, seemed oddly familiar.  Maybe because the bus stops seemed more popular than in other cities we've seen in Japan.  You would hardly even know there was a subway.  Buses appeared to be the norm for mass transit in Kanazawa. And by choice. Just like Seattle. Wait.... 

Anyway, the big tourist draw for Kanazawa are the Castle and the Kenrokuen Garden.  We stayed right near the garden, in part, because we wanted to get there around opening to get a jump on the crowds we read can make one of Japan's best gardens void of moments of possible peace and tranquility. 

The hotel we stayed at is part of Jeff's new favorite chain (of anything).  The chain is called Toyoko-inn.  We have stayed in four so far, and all have been as advertised: cheap, clean, staffed with friendly folks (almost all ladies), free high-speed internet in all rooms, and conveniently located.  Free breakfast is also standard. And that's the important part.  Free breakfast at all Toyoko-Inn locations starts at 7 am.  The garden opened at 7 am.  Peace and quiet is one thing.  A big, free breakfast is another.  So, after hitting the beloved Toyoko breakfast (rice, miso, and some sort of bread are standard, but after those three all bets are off as far as what one might find) we dashed out to explore the garden.  We never found out why, but the garden ended up being free too!  Maybe because it was Sunday.  Maybe because of the cherry blossom celebrations taking place.  Who knows.  One thing we've learned in our short time here (on earth): Don't question free things.

We have noticed that cherry blossoms and maples are about the only trees blossoming and budding so far.  Most deciduous Japanese trees appear to be a little later, or perhaps their Spring has been that much cooler.  Kenrouken Garden may have been prettier in later spring or early summer when more trees had leaves, but it was still splendid.  It had several fantastic water features, a few view points, orchards, ares that invited solitude, areas that invited sun and chirping birds - it had it all.  And getting there early allowed us to enjoy it with very few other people. Delightful!

We spent 30 or 40 minutes meandering in the garden before checking out a museum on one end of it dedicated to local handicrafts.   Kanazawa is notable for several handicrafts, but most revered for it's gold leaf.  We visited a store the following day that had hired a gold leaf artist to cover an entire room, inside and out, with the stuff.  Ba-ller!  We finished with the museum in about 45 minutes and returned to the garden.  Entrance wass still free, but we felt far less so inside of it.  Our early morning attack on the garden was quickly justified as the garden was swarming with people choking its carefully lain paths, picturesque bridges, and zen-like waterways.  Sometimes you take a risk, like getting up awfully early and braving the Sunday morning crowds at Toyoko's free breakfast in an attempt to miss the gawking masses at one of Japan's top three gardens.  Sometimes you gamble and get lucky.

We did stroll through the garden a bit more, because even when loaded with people it was still magnificent.  Finished with the garden, we went to to see Kanazawa Castle.  It was another clear day, though a bit cold.  The lovely weather combined with the fact that it was a Sunday brought people out to the castle en-mass.  We enjoyed seeing the structure, old ruins, and roaming the castle park, but the highlight was grabbing lunch from street vendors, sitting in a large field surrounded by locals enjoying the day, and watching young families at play.

Young parents in Japan, we have noticed, are hard to place.  A couple will have two kids, who look to be about 8 and 6, for example.  But the parents look way too young to have kids of this age.  They just look too cool.  We have started to speculate (big shout out to papa Osborn) that Japanese parents look too young to be parents partly because they dress awesome.  They look fashionable and put-together.  Another neat thing about some young, fashionable couples we've noticed here - they tend to dress their kids up super awesome and hip too.  Even the little kids look ten times more fashionable than Jeff ever has. It's not just the young couples and their kids either. Older folks we've noticed tend to look quite dapper as well.  Tour groups, consisting mainly of people who look older than 65, are frequently dressed as though they are going to Church or a formal dinner.  Again, Jeff normally dresses like he doesn't know what's going on, but here, and because we are on the road, he looks especially like a bum.

Our second day in Kanazawa was spent leisurely walking around the city. We went to the Samurai district and saw how this upper class lived during their rule here. The walls in this neighborhood used to be significant to social standing within the Samurai class.  The higher the wall, the higher the status. Many of the homes in this area are well-preserved, filled with notable everyday items, and open to the public as small museums.  The homes, items they held, and their histories provided a look into an era and lifestyle we hadn't learned much about yet. Kanazawa grew rich and influential on the back of it's Samurai class and rice production.  The Madea family, which established the Kaga domain from the city, supported a strong culture of the arts in Kanazawa that is still visible.  We haven't been much into the whole museum thing so far in Japan, but Kanazwa has no shortage to be sure.  The city's pride in it's art and handicrafts is still apparent throughout.

This was another glorious day for sun and we enjoyed it by taking things slow, appreciating Kanazawa's charms, sitting by the river, browsing the fish market, and generally keeping our heart rate as low as possible.  So far, we are proud to report that we haven't let any city, sight, or destination get us flustered.  We have taken our time, smelled the cherry blossoms, and moseyed at our own pace.  It hasn't even been three weeks yet, but having time on our side, which is to say, never feeling rushed, has been a blessing.  On a shorter trip, or one confined by time constraints, we might have been at each others throats any number of times.  The surprising lack of hostility, grumpiness, and arguments can be attributed, we think, to not having to do no kinda nothin' we don't feel like doing.  Or, conversely, being able to do whatever the Charles Dickens we feel like.  Cut out a museum? Sure, why not?  Go to lunch early, or late as the case may be?  But, of course!  Dinner here, now at this random place we know nothing about? Absolutely! 

We finished of the second day with more walking, a trot through the old geisha district, and some shopping.  We went back to our headquarters at the Toyoko for a bit of the ol' rest-up for the evening, and headed out later for some much-craved pizza. Although we are in a wonderland of Asian cuisine, other food items still call to us.  For the past few days before this, pizza had been almost as stuck in our heads as "Friday," by Rebecca Black.  We had spotted a promising Italian restaurant earlier in the day.  We were served a very satisfying caeser salad (sans parmesan)  and an unusual, but tasty, four-cheese pizza.  Despite not having any tomato sauce, the pizza hit the spot (Jeff was ecstatic to find blue cheese as one of the four).  The fact that Monday was apparently 1/2 off pizza day didn't hurt any either.  Jeff ordered a celebratory glass of wine and quickly canceled out most of our savings.  But it was a perfect way to cheers Kanazwa, Seattle's Japanese sister city!


Notes

The gold leaf room is one of the ten most ballinest things Jeff has ever seen.  He has decided that the master bathroom in our next home will be gold leafed.  All gold everything!

Wings! The night we got into Kanazawa provided one of our most memorable meals thus far.  There is more on food coming soon, so we'll be brief:  The city of Kanazawa provides an English language paper-thing.  In it are some cute and silly articles, along with restaurant suggestions.  The place we thought looked most try-worth was near our hotel, so we set out to find it.  We located it easily, but were informed there was an hour wait.  No problem!  We came back in an hour, and were treated to a cozy little meal consisting of many small items ordered to make a full meal.  The highlight was, without a doubt, the chicken wings.  They were fried or something and coated in some kind of delicious sauce, possibly from a recipe passed down from a thousand angels to the owner of this small gem of an eatery.  Golly, they were good!  Our first order was of five wings, our second order was of three.  The second order would have been for the maximum of ten if it wasn't for all that other stupid food we ate crowding our stomachs.  Damn it!

Jeff's favorite cheap-o snack are these horrible little pancake things.  Two come in a package and they cost about a dollar.  Each treat is made up of two little, impossibly light and fluffy pancakes with 'butter' and 'maple syrup' holding them together.  Their expiration date is too far off for them to have any nutritional value, so it is probably good that we can't read the list of ingredients.  We have seen them and purchased them twice.  Jeff has declared that if we find them again, he is planning to buy as many as he can carry into South Korea.  

Kanazawa will forever be known as the city of Jeff's first adult pony tail!