Takayama to Kanazawa

Day 8 - Takayama to Kanazawa

Takayama, Kanazawa

Saturday, 5 July 2014

This was a two train transfer so not too bad. We ended up in Kanazawa by around 2.30 and ate sandwiches on the train that we bought from the family mart over the road from the train station. We weren't going to arrive hungry after 2.00pm again!

We caught a taxi to the Holiday Inn. Fortunately I knew to call it the Kanazawa Sky for the taxi driver and it was a short ride...cost us just over 600yen. We had to sit separately for one of the journey's due to seat limitations. Interestingly they must sell every seat only once (so if someone gets off part way through it is sold for the entire journey) as there were lots of empty seats on the train. The JR station at Kanazawa is quite spectacular and it has been developed mor recently because the Shinkansen will be arriving in 2015. It will reduce the travel time from Tokyo from over 4 hours to 2.5 hours...a huge economic boom.

Our hotel room was great. Well laid out and spacious with a great view. The reception desk for the hotel is on the 16th floor with amazing views around the city. It looks down on Kanazawa castle and over at the hills. Our room was on the 15th floor with a nice view to the castle , over the market and out to the hills. Pretty great for 53300 yen for 3 nights.

We borrowed umbrellas from reception, got directions as to how to get to the castle and went out to explore. We decided that we needed to do this outdoor stuff in case the weather turned to custard. The castle has free English tours...so a lovely gentleman showed us around. The gate we entered has only recently been rebuilt..and it seems a lot of this work is being done because of the Shinkansen's arrival. The rebuilding has all been done using traditional methods and or is quite spectacular. The materials and craftsmanship are very special.

He explained that this gate was the original entrance and the older more original gate was the back entrance. We now understand why the pathway is shaped as it is ..so the enemy has to slow down to get in. We saw all the defence spits and how well designed the castle is. Kenrokuen Gardens were the private garden of the family. Apparently most gardens we will see are part of a temple so these are unique in that sense. It was lovely to stroll in them enjoying an ice cream. There were a number of girls strolling in the gardens who had rented Kimono for the day. My gardening friends would have appreciated it all a lot more than me so hopefully they will enjoy the photos!

We walked back to the hotel but decided to check out the shopping mall next door. Michael wants a Yukata . Bruce had bought one at the Rickshaw Inn (I probably should have done that then also) and Michael has also decided he wants a watch. This is after he has lost the lovely one Bruce bought him some years ago...that we always had to remind him to wear! My feet were very very sore and I was very much over this shopping mall but it was nice to have a look around. Downstairs in the mall is a food hall and grocery store and some restaurants. We bought some wine, cheese and crackers (actually..they were called Melba toast) and asked at the hotel for wine glasses and they also offered a corkscrew (Bruce has his pocket knife but a proper corkscrew ). It was really nice to settle down with a book and a wine..and FaceTime some of the family.

For dinner we asked at reception and they suggested we go over the road to the market..above the market are some restaurants. We enjoyed some fantastic sushi and donburi...time to rest those sore feet!!

	Photo 1 [Map]		Photo 2 [Map]
	Photo 3 [Map]		Coming up to Kanazawa Castle [Map]
	Photo 4 [Map]		Photo 5 [Map]
	Recreated door [Map]		Photo 6 [Map]
	Photo 7 [Map]		Photo 8 [Map]
	[Map]		Photo 9 [Map]
	Photo 10 [Map]		Photo 11 [Map]
	Photo 12 [Map]		Photo 13 [Map]
	Girls dressed in Kimono [Map]

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