La Gringa y Su Esposo: Kanazawa

May 16-18

We had a fun weekend getaway planned with the Stelzers in Kanazawa before we headed back to Central Asia. We arrived a few hours before them and checked into our hostel. We found a relatively cheap room that had two doubles and two bunks, a shower and toilet (in separate rooms), and even a fancy washer/dryer combo! It was a bit of a tight fit for the 7 of us, but the location was good, price was right, and it ended up working out great. We grabbed a quick sushi train dinner in the station when the Stelzers arrived and then settled in for the night.

We started the day at Curio Espresso at Tim S's request, a cafe run by an American-sounding westerner that we liked so much we went back the following morning. From there we headed to Omicho fish market for a choose-your-own breakfast of salmon, scallop, crackers, mochi, radish and snap peas. Kind of random, but good. I also got to ogle the $15 cantaloupe and $20 watermelons on offer. Japan produce prices are out of this world, but it's all so good (and visually perfect). I bet that is the best watermelon you would ever taste.

From the fish market we walked on to Kanazawa castle. After burning down several times, it is now more of a restored storehouse, gates, walls, and garden. Destruction by fire is as common in Japan as getting sacked by Genghis Khan was in Central Asia. Hazel had fun being our designated photographer, and the kids especially enjoyed the tour. The tour focused on the crazy wood architecture, which eschewed normal 90 degree corners for a set of 80s and a set of 100s, so everything was diamond shaped. Why?? Unclear if it served some structural purpose or the Japanese artisans were just showing off. My guess is the latter. There was some pretty amazing earthquake resistant joint constructions too. Lunch was ramen at Ippudo, a chain that has gone international and apparently has a restaurant in San Francisco.

Kenroku-en garden is a Japanese garden right next to Kanazawa castle and is supposed to be one of the best gardens in the country. It was quite crowded on this Friday afternoon, but it was easy to see why it was so popular. There were pockets of serenity even amidst the crowds. Koi ponds, waterfalls, large trees and carefully manicured plants with both wide and narrow paths over and around the hills in the park. While the entire park is constructed, it feels more like peaceful nature than artificial garden.

The boys went to the Suzuki Museum to learn about the eponymous Zen Buddhist philosopher while the girls went to look at some nearby thrift stores. The museum was very peaceful with more lovely gardens behind it, this time with relatively few people. We all met back up in the geisha district for dinner. We ended up eating delicious sushi and tempura at a nondescript place a few blocks out of the geisha district, a nice shift from the more touristy areas in the geisha district proper. Despite the name, we saw no geishas. Clyde crashed hard when we got back to the hotel, ensconced in his pallet of spare blankets in a corner on the floor after a long day out and about.

We ended our stay in Kanazawa with a trip through the Myoryuji (ninja) temple and a trek out to a beach on the west coast of Japan. The temple is known for having pitfalls, secret doors and stairwells, and hidden rooms for the shogun or high-ranking samurai to enter, leave, and pray unobserved, but it seemed a little contrived and it was never clear how useful any of these features were. The kids enjoyed it though, and the place was packed, running full tour groups through every thirty minutes.

The trek to the beach was an impressive display of fortitude by the kids. It was a thirty minute bus ride into the suburbs and a few miles of walking, in part because we had a hard time finding the right bus stop, but everyone made it out in good spirits. The beach itself suffered from plastic accumulation (the first place in Japan that wasn't almost completely trash-free!), but the sand was great and our picnic was delicious. Grocery store takeaway for dinner on the bullet train back to Tokyo (the kids were suuuper excited about the Skinkansen bullet trains) and we ended up back at the Stelzers' in the evening, exhausted but happy.