A little culture

Kanazawa is not a town normally on the tourist schedule to Japan, but we really liked it.  Although our stay here did not start well, we arrived at about 11:30pm, after a 6 hour drive from Kyoto to find that the Youth Hostel we were booked into had shut up for the night.

We drove down into the town centre and stopped outside a business hotel called the Toyoko Inn, a large chain of hotels that, as it turned out had just the deal for us.  Check-in after midnight and their Cinderella plan means that we could have a room for 5000Yen.  Which is less then the hostel would have been, but in a proper hotel with a free breakfast and a proper shower in our room and everything.  It also had a crazy robotised car park, which had me fascinated.

fruity alcopops was a little too strong

The next two nights we stayed in a small traditional inn.  Best thing about our large Japanese style room their was the very special coffee table that had a duvet over the top of it, and a special heater under it so that you could stick your legs under the table and get the nice and toasty warm.  Carolyne really appreciated this extra feature, as she had been feeling the cold a little.

First thing in the morning (after moving hotels and once again marvelling at the fancy car park) we walked down to the Kanazawa international lounge.  A place were foreigners (mostly expats, not tourists as it later turned out) can learn more about Japanese language and culture.  I have to say that we were most attracted by the word FREE that appeared in our guide book.  When we arrived there was much confusion, we wanted to do a bit of language studying, but we got some loud, incredulous gasps when we told them that we were only here for 3 days, they said we'd need at least 1 month to learn anything...  We only wanted to learn a few words to make us seem a little less ignorant, but never mind.  So item 2 on our list of things we (the girls really) wanted to do was dress up in kimonos, another.  But sadly the kimono teacher was sick.

However, they were able to organise a quick calligraphy lesson for us that we all enjoyed, especially as all the ladies that worked at the centre kept coming in and were repeatedly told that we were the crazy Europeans who wanted to learn Japanese in 3 days, which lead to more gasping in typically Japanese fashion.

Anyway, it seemed that they were beginning to like us, and we were invited back the next day to to some oshie, a strange old lady art form where you cut out  cardboard figure, then cover it in fabric and stuff some padding in between.  There is also lots of glue involved, and surprisingly I was great at this, (although possibly only because I got a lot more assitance from our lovely helpers).  Carolyne was particularly pleased with this as a birthday activity, especially when we were asked to join them for their weekly lunch, lots of home-cooked stuff from all over the world.

Other Kanazawa activites included visiting the fantastic modern art gallery they have there, complete with fake swimming pool and giant table football game.  Kept us amused for far longer than expected.  We also went to Keroku-ken, officially one of Japan's top 3 gardens.  It was okay.  But I guess we are not really into Japanese gardens that much.  Very pretty and all, and we once again enjoyed watching the people combing he moss and straightening out all the stones, but I guess it was just a bit sterilised.  We are also not fans of the way the trees are tied up with lots of string throughout the winter to stop them from losing their shape under snow.  According to the leaflet we were handed out this string makes them more beautiful, so they keep it on for 6 months a year.

We also paid a quick visit to the castle, which, it turns out was only rebuilt a few years ago.  Interesting to see a building like that in such shiny and pristine condition, but we need to look at a real Japanese castle later in the trip I think.

Finally a word about Carolyne's birthday.  Needless to say she got some amazing gifts from us, and we had a nice day in Kanazawa before a quick return to the hotel.  Only we didn't leave the room that night as they lure of fruity alcopops was a little too strong...  I'll say no more.