Kanazawa

Off I went to Kanazawa. Although it was not so sure from the start. At Haneda it was unsure if we would depart at all at first. Then it would depart on time but maybe return to Haneda due to snow in Kanazawa area.

Well, off we went and no snow at the Komatsu airport 🙂 After a 30 minutes or so bus trip from the airport I was at the Kanazawa station. And it was snowing. A lot.

And it kept on snowing on and off the whole day. Mixed in with some hale. And, quite surprising, some thunder and lightening. We also had about 30 minutes of sunshine. The locals said that this was typical Kanazawa weather.

Just the minute after I checked in at the Ana Crowne hotel I met Chie, coming from the Kanazawa hotel where she staid during here business trip this week.

First stop was to have lunch at a Japanese restaurant in the Omi-cho market. We order so many things because we were quite hungry. I ordered Buri-kama-yaki (grilled Buri head) and expected a head the size we find in Tokyo restaurants.

Obviously Kanazawa people take some pride in their Buri. And to our surprise we got the head of a Buri of maybe half a ton or so 😯 (or at least 30 kg). We ate and ate and ate it seemed like there were always some meat left.


Buri-kama-yaki

Rolling out of the restaurant and into a snow/hail storm we continued to the samurai district. Our next stop was the Nomura-ke house, a house of a samurai in the Edo period. It was beautiful and interesting. And the tea was quite good.


Naga-machi Buke Yashiki district Samurai armor
Tea at Nomura-ke house

On our way to the dinner place we took quite a detour via the Kanazawa castle park and the Hishiyagura. It was snowing all the time but quite cozy. And no people.


Imori-zaka gate Statue of some very important samurai(?)

We also found a funny watering fountain in the middle of the street. Later we saw them everywhere. And even later someone explained that it was water from deep down (hot spring) brought up by the underground pressure and used to remove the snow on the streets.


Mini-fountain as snow remover

Our dinner was a bit of an anti-climax. Chie had visited this restaurant on Tuesday and liked it so much she made a reservation for tonight. But we were so full since lunch time we could not eat much. But we had some sashimi, mozuku, a sea cucumber sashimi. Yummy!

Next to use was and old guy that started to talk with us. Mainly about Kanazawa. Then he asked if we wanted to join him for another drink. So we joined him and ended up at Ogeha. A small place with some nice people running it. We had a drink and just got started talking when the guy bringing us there said “sayonara” and left 8O. We continued to have a fun time.

Shaken not Stirred

Was wakened by an earthquake at 5:45 this morning. It was not a big one, just big enough to wake you up. Around 2-3 on the Richter scale according to Japan Meteorological Agency. This particular earthquake was recorded at http://www.jma.go.jp/en/quake/20091218055645391-180541.html

Anyway, now I am up so I can as well get ready to go to Kanazawa. Get to Haneda airport early and have breakfast there.