Heading north in summer holidays

---

In the height of summer Honshu, Japan's central island, is hot and humid. So think of us traipsing from station to hotel and to wonderful sites and activities in Kanagawa and beyond in at least 36 degreee heat with 80% humidity in glorious full sunshine. At night it dropped to 30 degrees but humidity often increased. I note that when in Adelaide I refrain from outside activities when the temperature reaches 34 or 35. To adventure means to have fun, but also to be fit, eat salt lollies and keep hydrated and only stop for typhoons!

Why did we head north in weather like this? Well, Jacinta asked our friends what activities they would like to do in Japan during their stay. She cobbled together our itinerary from their list and where we could find accommodation at a reasonable price.

Kanazawa was on the list becaue of its garden. It is one of Japan's strolling gardens. According to some sources the third best garden in Japan! For those of you who have never been to Japan, its urban areas have little green parkland space as we South Aussies know it. Also, in cities that have ancient origins like Himeji, the road is often narrow and serves as the foot path. So strolling has a more luxurious feeling in a strolling garden in Japan than the concept of 'going for a stroll in the neighbourhood' in Japan. Maybe also because strolling gardens are few and far between.

Our perambulate started at the top of the hill, enabling a gentle downhill stroll. We entered a walled gate opposite the castle, paid a small entrance fee and wandered across the top of the garden. The first sight is the 'iconic view' of the garden with an ancient stone lantern that is featured in Kanazawa logos of all descriptions. It sits on the edge of a small lake which on a bright sunshiny day was a deep green, doing its job of reflecting the shapes and types of trees surrounding it, enhancing the garden and making our brains feel like we were in a much bigger garden that we were! Making us feeling cooler too, despite sweat dripping of our noses. We of course looked unusual in bright colours, sunglasses and Australian hats that are indeed shady. We were among the only foreign tourist in the garden that morning.

I had been to the garden on my first visit to Himeji in 2010, in a different season and remembered it as the garden of propped up trees. Japan has a revence for ancient trees and does everything it can do to keep them healthy but also to meet its stringent aesthetic. I notice the propping up, the Japanese stroller notices the age and beauty of the tree! I'm a bit of a philistine if I don't make the props invisible.

If you do turn your back on the lake, there is the Kanazawa cityscape.

We made an early stop to visit a museum of local arts, crafts and products. The airconditioning and water cooler were an instant hit.

Memorable for me is the teahouse in gold. I also liked the cat. Kanazawa became rich and famous because a long time ago, its lord at the time contemplated how to make his fortune because his was waning and he did apparently care about those who paid his taxes, protected him and lived in his domain. He had the bright idea of minting gold coins (the za in the city's name means money). So his domain became famous for a monetary system, being able to make or cover things in gold, as well as painted silks. One of the trivial facts I learnt in Kanazawa is that if you take a lump of gold the size of a 10 yen coin (equivalent size to a 10c in Oz, it can be hammered, splattered and pummelled and all the other technical artisan words to make a foil 0.0004mm thick and the size of a tatami mat (half the size of a normal single bed). Rooms in Japan are measured in tatami mats. So it amused me to think that $1.20 or 12 coins would cover the same size of an average Australian double or master bedroom. But alas what would I do with all the gold foil, and I forgot that the coins are not gold!

We strolled gently down the slope of the hill, watched the gardeners at work in their lovely garden. Its architecture enabled us to look down over three lakes, each becoming smaller as they neared the bottom of the hill. It had an inner strolling circuit or an outer one. That day we just followed the shade. I've added a couple of photos from my earlier visit to show you the pathways strewn with irises. That's a feature in June.

Each lake had a feature, the bottom one being an old tea house with a wisteria arbour to shade it. One of the wonderful things about our stroll was that the garden completely deadened the sound of the city that surrounds it. As avid adventurers we spent about 90 minutes ambling around the garden. Sitting in its shady spots, enjoying the burble of water as it moved in bamboo pipes, along gravelly creeks, and settled to reflect its surroundings. We were joined by blue and red dragonflies hovering in manmade islands in the lakes. Sadly, for Japanese tourists who have less holidays than us, they take under 30 minutes on average for their stroll. For more information about the garden go to http://www.pref.ishikawa.jp/siro-niwa/kenrokuen/e/index.html. It has great photos of how they scaffold the trees to help them cope with the weight of snow in winter.

Our visit included the local market. It was about three times the Adelaide Central Market. For us the highlight was tofu icecream and peanut tofu, all made fresh on the premises that day. Because it was Kanazawa you could spend a further Y400 to have your icecream coated in gold - an even finer foil than described above. We missed the cake shop that had gold sponge cake, but yes reader, I did imbibe gilt sponge roll with cream on my previous visit!

Kanazawa has a fantastic modern art museum. It's design is from the famous Nando who also did the literature museum in Himeji. It looks like it is only one storey, but part of its exhibits are underground. Its outwardly a concrete and glass circular building but inside it feels normally oblong. Unfortunately for us, the queue was an hour long. We did not want to stand on concrete motionless for that long so visited its free areas. My favourite was a 'frieze' made of dry grass that mimiced the city scape and was approximately 8m long but no wider than 8cm.

Kanazawa caters for tourists extremely well. It has two buses that travel a circuit of the most popular sites regularly during day time. They go in opposite directions and you can hop on and hop off easily. Most of the drivers are women, so the ride is smooth and they are not impatient. This leaves the bus system for the locals whose business in the middle of the city is unimpaired transport wise by tourists.

Jacinta and I spent a few hours in the Noh museum. Noh is a traditional Japanese performance art - plots like opera, all parts and music performed by men - but appreciated by both of us. Jacinta couldn't help herself when the assistant offered to help her dress and perform as a Noh actor. You can see the process. She only had the mask on for about 10 minutes but you can see the obvious relief when it is removed! For anyone who wants a well set out useful explanation of Noh, its history, explanations of its main plots and the symbolism in costumes, masks and stage actions in English, I recommend you visit.

We found a wonderful young man whose business was making gorgeous wooden bowls using palonia wood. His studio looked like he had inherited it from his grandfather. Despite a gaping language barrier, he was gracious enough to show us it as well as his studio displaying his wares for sale. Our budgets only went to very small items, but it was a step back in history to see his workshop and how he is reviving an almost lost art.

A visit to Kanazawa is remiss if it fails to drop in on a silk factory. We went to one on the tourist route because it had two things besides acres of hand painted silk in material lengths or made up into usable items from kimono to handkerchiefs. You can watch an artisan at work painting the silk in situ. It helps if you watch the video of the whole process beforehand so you can truly appreciate his craftsmanship. Secondly as it was summer there were activities to be done. Jacinta chose to hand paint a calico bag; silk was a bit expensive and above her skill level. Alas when we joined her, she was at a table alone, surrounded by tables of families where only the kids were paiinting fabric - boys and girls. So our big girl was cheered on to finish her activity by her non nuclear family.

Each night we headed back to our glorious accommodation at K's House. We had our own Japanese room each and shared a kitchen. So we would make a huge salad, cook something easy, chat and eat then take our ice cream out onto the balcony (4th floor) feel the breeze, watch the night sky and sloth before hugging our airconditioners from the tatami and sleeping.

I added a few old photos from my 2010 trip. Kanazawa has a famous street parade where people dress up in Heian costumes (1400s) and there is lots of emphasis on the firies or those firemen who will don the old costumes and perform acrobatic feats up ladders that extend to hold five or six of them a piece then on a whistle, they all tumble down to the road, the ladder reduces in size and is carried horizontally until the next set of whistles. I saw a whole street full of teams in differing costumes all being acrobtic at once. The parade starts about 2pm and moves very slowly to the castle opposite the garden and all these people play instruments, dance, perform or just walk until about 6pm that evening when the parade finally reaches the castle.

---