Treat yo self – Visit Kanazawa

As I left the train station in Kanazawa and walked under a giant wooden art installation, I thought, “Ooo Kanazawa, you fancy!” 

Kanazawa is great size for a city; easy to navigate off the hop and everything is within walking distance. We spent 3 days there and as we left, Billy and I decided that it was a city we could see ourselves living in.

Our goals for our Kanazawa visit were to:

• Visit the Ninja Temple
• Eat snow crab and other fish (specialties in Kanazawa)
• Eat rice bowls
• Tour the great architecture of the city.

We accomplished all of this and then some.

Great Eats in Kanazawa

Our first meal was at an amazing specialty sardine restaurant called Iwashigumi. I went in skeptical about sardines because the sardines that I only knew were from a can.  Oh how wrong I was! The dishes, their friendly service, and the restaurant vibes (so much fun art!) had me smitten. We had salads, hot plates, sashimi, fried sardine spines, hot pots, and sesame ice cream.

When we left, they gave us presents and asked for our Canadian address. We’ve received two beautiful postcards in the mail from them that they send on my birthday and both of them are proudly on display in my home office.

After our meal, we had some sake and decided to visit a karaoke bar. The bar patrons were really friendly and invited us up to sing with them. Billy and I also performed “Love Shack” by the B52s. We weren’t asked back up again.

We also found a really cute craft beer brewery called Oriental Brewing in the Geisha district of the city. I tried their Citrus and the Sakura Bloom seasonal. Both delicious. 

For our goal of Kanazawa Snow Crab, for which they are famous, we visited Fuwari Ajichi. Great atmosphere here and we ate superbly; sashimi, snow crab,  cured fish in kelp, and grilled baby squids.

Architecture and Gardens

Ninja Temple

The Ninja Temple is really neat. The entire tour is done in Japanese but there are English books at each stop on the tour so non Japanese speakers can learn too. There were some ingenious tricks that the Ninjas created to protect themselves from attack.  Secret staircases, hidden double doors, and a paper lit stairs so the ninjas could see intruders shadows and spear trespassers. The building also had wavy wooden beams that made the building stronger to withstand heavy snowfall. Smart!

Kenroku-en

This garden is stunning and well-kept. It is obviously loved by the people of Kanazawa. It was here that we saw our first blooming Sakura trees. My favourite were the trees that were protected with a structure of ropes in order to protect the trees from heavy snowfall. 

 Close to the garden is…

Kanazawa Castle

The castle has been restored and much of the inner village has been dug up apart from one large fortress building. What I found the most interest was the engineering of the support beams in the fortress. Essentially, the beams connected with each other using small spears of wood to create a diamond-like structure between the beams that gave the building the strength and stability to withstand earthquakes. 

Women’s Fashion & Shopping

In Kanazawa, the women are gorgeous. Most Japanese women seem to put a lot of effort into their appearance and aesthetics are often one of their main hobbies (according to the bios of our Air BnB hosts). Kanazawa is known for their beautiful kimonos. I almost purchased a yukata but on further research found out that real yukatas have about an extra yard of fabric for folding and I thought the size would be impractical for my luggage.

I also bought some really cute stationary, pens, and stamps here. It’s great shopping.

Omicho Market – Fresh Food Market

This place is huge – go there to eat all the fresh seafood and yummy snacks.

So that’s that. Obviously, Kanazawa is amazing and you should go there if you are going to Japan.