Kanazawa

The weather today in Kanazawa was worse than it was in Kyoto.  At least in Kyoto it snowed.  In Kanazawa, it only rained, and rained, and rained.  I'm not sure what temperature it was, but I'm sure it was in the low 30s.  Since we only had one full day to see Kanazawa, we couldn't afford to wait until the weather was better to explore.

Like in Kyoto, we bought day-passes for the bus.  There is a circle route meant for tourists.  The circle route bus stops at all points of interest including the geisha district, castle and garden area, and samurai district.

Since our ryokan was near the train/bus station, we purchased our bus tickets at the station and hopped on the tourist bus which was, strangely enough, filled with locals.

Our first stop was Gion (geisha district).  The bus dropped us off near the district, but we decided to explore the area surrounding first. 

River near geisha district.

As we wandered the streets, light rain fell off and on.  We attempted to play my traveling game, "Most Interesting," in which the participant(s) walk only along the most interesting streets without consulting a map.  My theory is that if you wander around choosing the most interesting street at each intersection, you will naturally end up seeing what it is you want to see.    


After wandering for awhile, Greg broke down and pulled out the map.  My traveler's intuition said we were going the right way, but he said he had to consult the map to be sure.  

Geisha district.

We did find Gion.  (I still don't think we needed the map.)  After passing by a tea shop or two featuring saleswomen dressed as geikos (another word for geisha used primarily in Kyoto districts), we hopped back on the tourist bus.  The castle was our next point of interest.

Kanazawa Castle.

Although the sun was out, the sprinkling continued while we visited the castle.  By this time, my jeans were soaked about halfway up the calf.  We wished that the rain would turn into snow - it felt cold enough - but it never did.

We toured the castle grounds, then walked to the nearby garden, Kenroku-en.

Kenroku-en Garden.

Kenroku-en Garden is one of the most famous gardens in Japan.  The garden was pretty, but because it is winter, most of the trees had no leaves. It had snowed recently in Kanazawa, but the rain and slightly-too-warm temperature meant that the snow was melting and only bits remained.

Kenroku-en Garden.

The sprinkling had been a minor annoyance in Gion and the castle, but became unbearable while visiting the garden.  Greg's rain jacket failed him and my umbrella was no match for diagonal rain, which meant we were unable to explore the whole garden and we were more or less soaked by the time we exited the garden and sat down inside a tourist shop/ramen house bordering the garden.

Samurai District.

Miserably wet, but not finished sightseeing, we hopped back on the tourist bus and headed towards the samurai district.  Fortunately, the weather wasn't quite so horrible anymore.  Unfortunately, most of the houses are not authentic samurai houses, but recreations.  Nevertheless, visiting the samurai district was interesting and gave us some historical insight.

After walking through the samurai district, we wandered around Kanazawa a bit more, then took the bus back to the station and walked back to the ryokan.