Japan Unmasked

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28.08.10 Kanazawa

The hotel was a short walk from the station. Outside the station, the water fountain was like a billboard switching from the "time" to "Welcome to Kanazawa" in both English and Japanese.
After we checked in, we all visit the Myoryuji (Ninja Temple). The guide explained the history and showed us some of the rooms and secret exits from them. Outside as we waited for the rest of the gang, Kay and I decided to have a green tea ice cream; again an acquired taste. From here we walked to the Normura Samurai house. From here some of us walked to the 21st Century Museum of Contemporary Art. The main attraction (expalined by Ian) was to see the swimming pool which from above you could observe the people looking up from below. We saw the top part of the small pool and some of the statuses outside, the entrance fee I think was quite high, hence we didn't go into the inner part. After this we walked back to the hotel, through a park with a wall of falling water and various statuses.

In the evening Tom took us to the local fish market where we I think had the best meal yet. Sushi, it was great fun. If you wanted something other than the plates circulating, you selected it on the touch screen and an express boat brought it to your table. At the end of the meal each persons bill was calculated by scanning the number of plates you had stacked up and the waitress also printed your bill from the scanner.

Since Kay's a vegetarian and Adriano is allergic to fish, they both went off to an Italian.

After the meal some of the gang headed off for a Beer whilst we headed back to the hotel, still regret not going for the beers.

29.08.10

Since we were leaving for Hiroshima at 11am, Dave, Jane, Kay and I decided to get a taxi to the Kenroku gardens, while some of the others walked the 30 or minutes to get there. The gardens were really great, although we did seem to miss some of the sites and had to re-trace out tracks. We walked back to the hotel via the fish market and came across some artist creating ice sculptures. We all met (everybody was very punctual) to catch the train to Hiroshima. At the station we got some lunch for the train journey. I think here Amy got some beef dish that cooked itself when you upacked it and Stuwart (on a diet remember) bought the most colourful packed lunch.

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