Kanazawa

In the morning we caught the train from Kyoto to Kanazawa. This time we didn't reserve our seat in advance (with the JR rail pass you can get free reservations but you need to make them at the train station), we got on the train but the car was crowded (although no one was standing). In Kanazawa we were in a very nice hotel where somehow our reservation was screwed up and we were given a nicer room. We were a bit worried that we would have to pay the greater bill, but it all worked out in the end. We decided to walk around the town, which turned into a day of at least 20km of walking!

First we went through the old samurai district, to see the earthen defence walls of the town and to go into some of the poorer foot soldier houses.

We continued to walk to the temple Myoryuhi, also known as the ninja temple although there were no ninjas there. The temple is tiny on the outside but confusing and large on the inside with 23 rooms and 29 staircases and 7 different levels but officially only 2 floors (the stairs to the third floor was a side wall in a closet).

The temple was built by Toshitsune of the Kaga clan and he built many temples to house his soldiers and this temple stood in the middle and was the lookout. There were hidden stair cases below floor boards that could be pulled out, stairs where the risers were made out of rice paper so you could watch from underneath who was going up the stairs (and possibly stab them), double sliding doors for quick escapes and a room for committing seppuku when you lost the battle. You had to make a reservation to visit the temple, although the tours we saw were never full of people, perhaps it was a way to limit the crowds.

Following the temple visit (my favorite of Kanazawa) we walked up to the famous Kenrokuen strolling gardens next to the old castle. The gardens had some famous pine trees that needed wooden supports and were hundreds of years old.

There is also the famous two-legged lantern which looked very picturesque next to the water.

There was also the oldest fountain in Japan which flowed based on gravity fuelled water pressure.

Our walking wasn't finished, we next walked to the rebuilt castle of Kanazawa (which they were still rebuilding).

It was interesting to see the wall construction, all bamboo and mud.

Back at the hotel we checked in and then headed out again to visit the Chaya district, similar to Gion in Kyoto with old wooden houses lining streets. It was too bad we only saw it in the dark, I thought it would be more lively at night similar to Gion. We didn't find anything to eat there, but luckily we had our taste of Takoyaki earlier at one of the street vendors.