Kanazawa

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We were up bright and early and made our way to the bus station. I had definitely slept well on the futon, it was really comfortable. Luckily the bus station is right next door to the train station, so it was really easy to find. We bought our tickets and boarded the bus. It left bang on time, 7:50 am, I love Japanese efficiency. The drive through the countryside was beautiful, and we went through about a million tunnels, it's the only way to get through all the mountains. We made a brief stop at Shirkawago, it looked great, I can't wait to go back there on Tuesday. The journey took just over two hours. at 10 am we were deposited at Kanazawa bus terminal. We found the bus stop for our journey back and also the bus stop for the loop bus, that we would be taking around the city. Luckily enough the two bus stops were next door to each other. We didn't have to wait too long for the bus, only a few minutes.

When the bus arrived, it was tiny and there was quite a queue, but we managed to squeeze on. We rode about five or six stops and purchased our day tickets as we got off. The ticket is only 500 yen and allows you to ride the two loop buses, left loop and right loop, and the Kenruokuen shuttle bus, too. I met my first rue person in Japan, finally, it happened. The bus driver was a bit of a bitch, we had followed the protocol, that it states at the front of the bus, to pay when getting off, but she looked none too pleased to have to issue us with day passes, not that it took any time at all.

Since we were short on time, we had come up with an itinerary the night before. Our first stop was Higashi-Chayamachi. This is Kanazawa's geisha district. We wandered the streets here for a good hour and a bit. It was just so pretty, real old school Japan, kind of like Kyoto, but a lot quieter. Even though it was quieter, there were still quite a few tourists about, most of them on group tours. The village had a really sleepy feel to it, and we spent ages taking pictures. Lots of the buildings are now tea houses and shops, also the area is famous for gold, I don't know why. We went into one shop/gallery, downstairs they sold a million different products all containing gold, and upstairs there was a gallery that had a small but informative display about the geisha in the area. There was also another small room, which displays some of the fancy gold goods that you could buy there, ornate boxes and screens for example. Everything was really beautiful, if only I was rich... However my budget only stretched to some gold tea and coffee. I also bought an ice cream sprinkled with gold. That was cute. In Higashi-Chayamachi, they ask you not to eat food in the streets, to help preserve and keep the area clean and tidy. The store had a nice little area inside, where you could sit down and enjoy your ice cream, which we made use of.

We wandered around the quaint little streets for a bit longer and we came across the gold house that we had read about. It's not really a gold house, it's a souvenir shop now, but if you go through the back and enter the cute little courtyard, there is a room off to one side that is covered with gold leaf. We got some photos of it, but the lighting is pretty bad, so they didn't really come out very well. We ended up buying some stuff in the shop. They had sake or plum liquor with gold in it. Think of Goldschlager, but ten times classier, we couldn't resist and I bought a bottle of the plum liquor, as I really like it. It was a beautiful day outside, and the sun was beating down, the weather report yesterday, that had said the weather wouldn't be that great was obviously lying. We wandered the street and walked to the river bank. We wandered along the river bank and back to the bus stop. We ha a timetable, so we were able to plan our time, so we weren't wasting a load of time waiting for the bus.

We only went a few stops to Kenroku-en. Kenroku-en is one of the Three Great Gardens of Japan. We walked up a small hill to the garden and paid our entrance fee, I can't remember how much it was now, and we were given a pretty ticket to remember the place by. The gardens were started sometimes in the 1620s by the Maeda clan. The garden were completed in 1676. It was scorching walking around the garden. The sun was shining high in the sky, not what the weather report had suggested yesterday. We wandered around the gardens. We saw all the highlights Yugaotei, the oldest building in the garden, Shiguretei Tea House, which is still used as a teahouse today, it was reconstructed in the year 2000, we all wanted to go into the tea house as it looked idyllic and peaceful, however time was not on our side. There was also Funsui, a fountain, which is the oldest in Japan. The height of the fountain depends on the level of water in Kasumigaike Pond. We also saw the Statue of Prince Yamoto Takeru. We left the gardens by a different gate, as it lead us to a different bus stop.

We were deposited along the bank of the river. We had a rough map, so we kind of knew which way we had to head. We were about to cross the river, when we saw a convenience store, we all needed more water, so we headed in there. We had come to the realisation that it was a lot cheap to buy a big bottle of water and divide it between our small bottles. We were all a bit peckish too, so got some food. We stood outside the store, by the rubbish bins eating our lunch and having a good laugh at how different this meal was compared to our fancy dinner the night before. I had a nice little snack of the sweet soybean curd parcel filled with rice and mushrooms. We headed over the bridge and up the hill to the Ninja Temple.

Myoryuji or Ninjadera temple, as it is known, was easy to find, it was about a ten minute walk from the bus. When we arrived at the temple, we found out that you couldn't enter the main building unless, you were on a tour. Lady Luck was on our side, yet again, as there was a tour starting right then. We didn't know you had to reserve spots, so we had to wait until everyone else had been checked in and seated, to see if there was space available to for us. Luckily, there was. We had been a bit undecided about doing the tour, as the staff didn't really sell it to us. It was 800 yen, would last only forty minutes, and was only in Japanese. However, despite all these bad points, the tour was so cool! Definitely worth doing! I would recommend it to anyone. Myoryuji is a Buddhist temple belonging to the Nichiren sect. It was built in 1585, as a prayer place of the Kaga Domain, by Lord Maeda Toshiie, who was the founder of the Kaga Domain. It was originally situated by Kanazawa Castle, but in 1643, it was moved to its present location in 1643 by Toshitsune Maeda, the third lord of the Kaga Domain. The temples in this area, Tera-machi, were considered a shield in case there was an attack on the central government.

We were lead into the temple. We had had to take our shoes off before we entered and then we were shown to a room, where we could store our bags. Then we were lead into the main room and told to sit down. A guide (I think an audio guide, although I can't really remember) was explaining a load of stuff about the temple in Japanese. We were given a little file, which contained photos of the various points of interest that we would see on our tour, with explanations about them in English. We read through the file, it was so cool reading about all the secret access points, hidden rooms, trick staircases, and a lookout point. The temple is said to be connected to Kanazawa Castle, I don't know if they mean in its present location or its former one. I'm a bit skeptical, as no one has tried to check if the two are actually connected.

The temple has 23 rooms and 29 staircases. Huge beans were used in construction, so that the temple was able to withstand strong winds and heavy snow, the beams disperse the weight of the snow over the entire roof. The offertory box, where people throw their money is embedded in the centre of the main building, had another purpose, as it was also used as a trap to trap enemies that could attack the temple. There were some trap stairs next to the sanctuary. They lead to a secret passage and are accessed by removing a floorboard, there is a passage that leads to a guardsmen's room that was used as a hiding place. There is another set of hidden stairs behind the sanctuary area, that when the door opens you can remove a floorboard to find the secret stairs, ingenious! If the door is closed the floorboard is locked in place, the stairs lead to a secret passage.

During the Edo period, when the temple was constructed, the Tokugawa shogunate (government) prohibited the construction of buildings that had more than three floors, and from the outside the temple look like it only has two levels. However inside, it is actually a four-story building with a seven layer internal structure. Amazing! Another point of interest was the seppuku, the ritual suicide chamber. This was a tiny room with four tatami mats covering the floor (the number four is associated with death in many Asian cultures), the room cannot be exited from inside once the door is closed, the door can only be opened from the outside. If the warriors lost a battle, then the defeated leader would have to come here and kill themselves. I really enjoyed the tour, there were loads of people on the tour, but we were divided into small groups of about ten, and each group had there own guide. The book we were given was easy to use as it was all numbered and you could use the pictures to locate the part of the temple you were in. Also, you never really crossed paths with the other tour groups.

We made it back to the bus station with plenty of time to spare. We bought some drinks and headed to the bus stop to wait for our bus. There was another bus there, but it left on time and our bus filled the vacant slot. We left promptly at 4 pm, I wish we could have taken a later bus back, but that was the last one to Takayama. I was so tired I snoozed most of the journey away. We arrived back in Takayama around 6 pm. We popped into the bus station and we saw a machine that vended hot meals. This is the kind of thing that you read about existing in Japan, but never come across. We made a pact to try something from it tomorrow, either before or after our trip to Kamikochi. We headed back to the hostel to dump our stuff, and get a dinner recommendation. We decided that we wanted to try the Takayama Ramen and the hostel staff told us a good restaurant to try. The restaurant was marked on the map, but we just couldn't find it. Instead we went to a restaurant that we had seen the night before that looked good.

I didn't know the name of the restaurant and I've tried to find it on the evil trip advisor, but I can't find it. Anyway, it's near the river, on the street back from it, on the corner and it has massive pictures of the different dishes it does on the wall. The pictures looked very appetising, so we headed in. We ordered a Hida beef rice bowl, Takayama Ramen, and Hida beef ramen. We also ordered a side of boiled egg each. I cannot resist eggs, so to see them on the menu as an extra, there was no doubt in my mind I was having one. We were quite perturbed by the owner/waiter as he seemed quite abrupt and rude, when he came over to take our order, however we later realised it was just his accent or dialect, and he was actually a nice bloke. The Hida beef rice bowl as amazing, really delicious and definitely the best thing we ordered, eaten with the egg, I was in heaven. The next best dish was the Hida beef noodles, they were really good. However the Takayama noodles weren't too great. They were a bit too plain for us. We got chatting to the lovely couple at the next table, as their son was entranced by us, we were the first foreigners he had ever seen. Well he was still a baby. After dinner, we spent a while wandering around the town, it was so peaceful. Then back to the hostel for another early night.

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Photos

Bus Ticket
How Retro!