Kanazawa

We caught the evocatively titled Thunderbird train from Kyoto and changed at Tsuraga after an hour or so to a bullet train for the last 45 minutes to Kanazawa. Despite never having previously heard of it, the population is almost half a million! It is also known as the second Kyoto due to the fact that it is the only other place in Japan where they train geisha.

Our hotel was tight next to the station and after leaving our bags we walked to the main park area of town and Kanazawa-jo,. The castle and surrounding park. Here we see probably the best cherry blossom yet. We wandered around the castle park and then stopped for some food at a local place. They served us jibuni, a local favourite consisting of meat and Japanese vegetables in a thick broth. To be honest it wasn't really to our tastes!

Next we walked across the road to the Kenroku-en gardens, labelled one of the top three gardens in Japan. We spent an hour or so walking around and saw more cherry blossom along with trees propped up with wooden props to keep their shape!

Our last stop was the Higashi Cheya area which has lots of old buildings. It was pretty but then it started to rain and so after unsuccessfully trying to catch a bus we got a taxi back to the hotel.

We had a disappointing club sandwich at the hotel before heading out for some drinks and cards and then coming back to the hotel for bed.Read more