In Rapid Succession, Kanazawa!

The next morning, Katya and I woke up at 5 AM, and both of us mistakenly thought that it was 6 (we had to leave at 7). While she figured the true time out and went back to bed, I got up, changed my clothes, brushed my teeth, etc, all the while wondering just how late Katya and Sherri were going to sleep. Oops.

After we had all woken up, we headed over to 7-11 to nab some breakfast for the train (I got a yummy, 98 Yen piece of bread filled with custard), before taking a taxi back to the station. We had two train rides that day, both on the Shinkansen rail...I fell asleep on one of them (which is surprisingly common in Japan. Lots of people on the subways/trains will simply take a catnap between stops), and listened to my ipod on the other.

When we finally arrived in Kanazawa, it was rainy and humid, and we took a taxi to our ryokan, the Sumiyoshiya (probably my favorite hotel of the whole trip, so far. The one we're in now charges1,500 Yen to go swimming! That's around $18, or something absurd like that).

Katya and my room at the Sumiyoshiya

Sherri had one bedroom, and Katya and I shared the one next door. We got our own toilet and everything! The service at the Sumiyoshiya was nothing short of excellent. The owner helped us carry our luggage to our rooms, and when we got there, we had bean cakes (Katya didn't like it, so I ate hers) and hot tea (But she really liked the tea) waiting for us. I'll describe the absolute feasts we were provided for dinner and breakfast later; after checking in, the three of us left to explore Kanazawa.

Our snacks

We headed to the Ishikawa Museum for Traditional Crafts, where we saw exhibits of old items all produced in the Ishikawa Prefecture. There were a lot of neat items, like old iron tea kettles, wooden bowls, paper lanterns, etc, with a large emphasis on lacquer and gold leaf (Kanazawa specialties). 

Katya and Sherri in the old geisha district

Next up, we visited the old (and, according to the guidebook, still active) geisha district of Kanazawa. The narrow streets and old buildings were charming, and it was easy to imagine the place with a red glow, lit by paper lanterns at night, and frequented by Edo period noblemen. We didn't actually see any geishas, but we were beckoned into this one shop specializing in gold leaf, and saw a tremendous wall all covered with gold (the only one of its particular kind- with some special Japanese clay- in the world).

All this was our dinner!

The three of us then returned to our ryokan, and at the appointed time, headed off to dinner (provided by the Inn). We sat down to eat at a Japanese-style table, and our hosts brought tray after tray of food out for us. We were all pretty shocked at the quality and quantity of the feast presented to us; everything was really good, but we were forced to eat our favorite dishes first, for fear that we might get full before we could eat them. I had some delicious grilled fish, crab, miso soup, vegetables in some broth, and tasty tempura.


After our dinner, we all retired to our rooms. The onsen here were smaller than in Nikko, so we all took turns bathing this time. Afterward, we rested on our futons (considerately put out for us by the hotel staff while we ate our dinner) before going to bed.

Typing about our food has made me hungry; I think Katya and I will go and eat our dinner (udon) now!