The weather for the two days available while the boys were here with us was predicted to be rain then sun, so we thought we'd look at the old "pleasure district" on the first day, then go through the famous Kenroku-en Gardens on the better day. Nothing was open for breakfast, so we made do with bread and toppings we had in hand. We donned all our warm and wet-weather clothing as it was raining steadily, and only about 3 degrees. The boys bought umbrellas at "Le Parapluie", an umbrella shop conveniently close to us. For some reason, French names for shops are very much in vogue here.
Down the road and after a quick coffee stop at Hum and Go it was over the bridge to the pleasure district, which had been where geisha (locally known as geiko) lived and entertained their clients. It's been maintained in the original wooden single or sometimes two-storey style, with many buildings looking very original, though mostly now repurposed. Kanazawa was a centre for many crafts, particularly the production and use of gold leaf - 98% of all Japan's supplies. As a result gold leaf is used in all manner of things - glassware, wooden bowls, clothing, and even as a wrapping or topping on food items such as cakes, sweets and ice-creams. The shops were full of locally produced items, some a little souvenir-ish, but most of genuinely excellent quality and craftsmanship. We all spent quite some time, and a little money, looking at the galleries. One of the gold shops in particular was spectacular, with entire golden rooms.
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| A selection of craft work |
We were able to visit the Ochaya Shima teahouse, a 1820 building where geisha performed dances, musical entertainments and more for wealthy benefactors. It was most interesting, bringing to life what we had read in Memoirs of a Geisha and other books.
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| Ochaya Shima teahouse kitchen |
Something lovely was the number of young Japanese women who were visiting this area in pairs or small groups, dressed in gorgeous rented kimonos. It's lovely seeing the old traditions honoured - there's no sense of it only being a bit of a fun dress-up for a day.
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| Young women in rented kimonos on a day out |
Lunchtime was coming up fast, so we set off for the Omicho Market. The barbecued snacks at a central stall were too tempting, so we had one each, before checking out the market in depth and ending up at a small noodle shop. Such fun. Buying lunch (under 1000JPY - NZ$12)) meant feeding a note into a machine, pressing the appropriate button and handing the resulting docket over to one of the three staff behind the counter. A little old lady next to me made sure the staff gave us tea, so we sat and drank that watching over the counter as the staff rapidly prepared the meal. A big joke was made of handing us messy Europeans a big paper bib each. Really enjoyable being in the midst of all the hustle and bustle, steam, staff running every which way, and ending up with yet another good meal.
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| Bibs for the boys |
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Preparing our lunch
After finishing off touring the market, and marvelling at the cheap food especially the pre-packed sushimi meals, we looked in at a department store. Japan is huge on packaging. In the store there was a lovely sweets section. If you buy some, there are perhaps 4 or 5 layers of packaging. The sweets are individually wrapped, then all wrapped together inside the box. There's the box itself, which when you buy it will be further wrapped in beautiful gift paper, then finally put in a nice bag. It's so nice, but incredibly wasteful in a modern world.
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| Even fruit gets packaged and dressed up |
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| Sweets, and packing on packing |
Alastair and Simon wanted to see Muji, a design store not unlike Ikea, so we walked the short distance into the city centre. With our umbrellas and wet-weather gear, we'd all managed to keep both warm and dry. Muji was distinguished by some very weird foods in little packets. Perhaps the best was a dried fish and almond slivers mix!
Given it was getting a bit gloomy and was still wet, we took the loop bus back to the Kanazawa Castle. The castle itself was burnt out centuries ago, but the grounds were very attractive, particularly the Gyokusen Inmaru Garden within it, which whet our teeth for seeing the main gardens the following day.
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| Gyokusen Inmaru Garden |
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| First blossom of the season - plum blossom |
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| Kanazawa Castle gates |
One thing which struck us today was the amount of labour used for jobs which elsewhere wouldn't exist. There are many little car parking lots with perhaps only 8 or 10 spaces, but a significant proportion of them have a full-time attendant waving an orange wand to direct users in or out and to "protect" pedestrians on their way past. A workman on a ladder against a building might well have not just a full set of cones and barriers, but another wand-waving man each side on the footpath.
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| No boring orange cones here |
