Our next stop on our Japan adventure was Kanazawa. It is another midsize city that has enough attractions for 1-2 days but we took it leisurely and spent 4 nights. We are getting into a Japanese traveling routine. We start our day by me going to the 7-11 or Family Mart and getting some food for breakfast. Like many, we are big fans of the egg salad sandwiches! We then have a slow morning before heading out to see the tourist sites or museums around 10am. We see the city and then find a nice place for lunch. After lunch, we head back to rest a bit and do some travel planning in our hotel. We then go out for a walk and eventually find a good place for dinner and maybe a cocktail. We then watch some Youtube before falling asleep early. Our traveling retirement isn’t all that exciting, but we are definitely enjoying our routine here in Japan. Our first tourist stop is the Kanazawa Imperial palace and the nearby gardens.
Kanazawa has a Geisha district as well as a Samurai district. Both of them are narrow streets between some old buildings from the 1800’s. Lots of tourists are wandering around visiting the tourist shops and some of the historical buildings that are open for visitors. One of the unique draws of Kanazawa is the amount of shops selling gold leaf. They put in on jewelry, cosmetics and even on food. Gold doesn’t really have a taste. I didn’t see a need to try the gold leaf ice cream.
Kanazawa does have a fantastic contemporary art museum that we had to visit. Contemporary art isn’t my favorite, but we enjoyed the offbeat exhibition that was currently running. We also visited the market which is famous for seafood. Kanazawa is on the coast, but we didn’t visit the ocean at all. We didn’t see a waterfront or beach on the tourist map at all. I don’t think Japan is really into beach or beach town culture. Although, I probably need to visit a bit more of the country before I can label them as “anti-beach”. We are still in only our third Japanese city.
4 days was just right for us in Kanazawa. We are ready to try a bigger city again. Next stop- Kyoto!