After that we went to see the castle which had been newly renovated and it was showing off it’s white color.

And there was a gate with an interesting design.

The inside of the castle was completely renovated, but it was possible with some imagination to imagine how it was used many many years ago. I didn’t know that they had electic outlets in the walls, internet routers and flat screen TVs back then, though. (hehe) ^^
After looking at the castle and small park around it, we went to see the famous Kenrokuen Garden, which was an extremely beautiful place. I think this place will be pretty in different ways at all times of the year.

There was also the first fountain in Japan from 1861 working on natural pressure by difference in the water level.

and a small sunbathing lizzard!! ^^

After walking for quite some time in this park (I highly recommend this place), we went to the Higashi Chaya District.

Since we walked a lot and had skipped lunch due to the late breakfast, the first stop was a café. Most cafés in this district sell Japanese sweets/cakes, and they can be a bit special to foreigners (including me). It usually looks really good but foreigners usually get surprised about what it actually is when eating it. The below is vanilla and maccha icecream (maccha is like thick green tea), mochi (made by pounding boiled rice with a sort of a hammer into a substance a bit similar to chewing gum), and sweet soy beans.

It was difficult for me to eat these things when I just came to Japan, but I don’t hate it now. However, this time I went with a cheese cake instead. ^^
There were many interesting stores selling souvenirs in this district. There were also many stores selling food or beauty products containing gold (gold is an industry in Kanazawa), which was interesting to see but I did not buy anything. One particularly interesting thing was that it was possible to enter a “Chaya” which, despite it’s name that means something like “tea house”, was a place where Geisha entertained the guests e.g. with song and dance.

After browsing several stores in this district we still had a little bit of time until the departure time of the train back to Tokyo, so we thought it was a great idea to buy beers and some snacks in a convenience store and drink it by the river.

We found out that the idea sounded better than it was since it was a bit smelly close to the river, and there were quite a lot of bugs. ^^ But you only noticed the smell in the beginning and it was actually okay despite the bugs. After that we returned to the station where we had a bit time to browse the souvenir shops and then we headed back to Tokyo!
Phew, that was a lot of writing and I still need to write about my trip last weekend! But that will have to wait a little bit. See you!!

The post Weekend trip to Kanazawa! (Day 2) appeared first on Kristines Blog.

… and an interesting fountain clock which both could tell time..

… and say welcome to the people arriving to Kanazawa (ようこそ金沢へ).

To get around you can take the bus, however there is a quite nice bike renting system which we chose to use since the weather was good. If done correctly, you can use the bikes all day for only 200 yen (around 10dkk). You need a credit card and a pasmo/suica or similar, and the maximum time you can keep a bike without visiting a bike stand is 30 minutes, but it’s really useful. Around Kanazawa there are something like 20 points where you can put/pick up bikes, and they are cleverly located close to popular sightseeing spots. It should be noted, though, that the max height of the saddle was quite low and definitely not made for tall people, but as it is not long distances it was fine.

The first stop was a large food market mainly selling fish, fruits and vegetables. It was interesting to see all the different types of fish they sell, and I was surprised by shrimps suddenly jumping in their tray.

And of course there were also squid which along with octopus is my ultimate enemy of foods in Japan. ^^

And large bamboo shots…

And fresh wasabi (わさび)!!

Inside the market you can eat things like oiysters, shrimps and sea urchin directly at the food stands, or you can have sushi in one of the restaurants. As almost always in Japan, you need to stand in like to wait for these restaurants, and sometimes the queue is long (below is people sitting and waiting to get inside a sushi restaurant)..

.. but the place we went to had a waiting time of 20 minutes, so that was not too bad. And the sushi was really good.

Second stop was an art museum which was… very special I’d say. Most of the art in there was a bit creepy I think. But there was a pool with a room underneath where you could go and take some interesting pictures from the top.. Art has many forms…

Also outside of the art museum there were some slightly weird pieces of art, and particularly some “leg statue” was weird.

After a short break in a café we moved on to taking a walk in a part of the city with old fasioned “samurai style” buildings.

Having walked and biked quite a lot around we went to the ryokan/guest house and it was really nice and cosy place despite being cheap.

One reason for it being cheap was probably that there was only one toilet to around 5-6 rooms, but it didn’t give any problems. After having a bath we went to look for somewhere to eat dinner, and ended up in a Yakitori restaurant which was nice and cheap.

Just before leaving the restaurant we fell into talk with the owner and some of the other costumers (in Japanese), and it is always interesting when these kind of things happens.
That was the end of the first day in Kanazawa, and the next day also included a lot of interesting sightseeing before going back to Tokyo. But since this post already got quite long, that will be up next.

The post Weekend trip to Kanazawa! (Day 1) appeared first on Kristines Blog.