On the second day of my stay in Kanazawa, I wanted to visit the Nagamachi samurai district. There are still many houses and smaller residences from the Edo period – both for samurai and the commoners. Many of the houses were still inhabited until recently, and the entire complex has been preserved quite authentically.
A good breakfast
Before I left, I had a great breakfast in the hotel. Of course, I chose the Japanese option, which included an “interesting” carp – quite difficult to eat with chopsticks. At the table next to me, people were grumbling loudly and rudely because they had obviously forgotten to order breakfast. Those tourists đ My meal was definitely very tasty, again completely different than in Yufuin, for example, but great. A clear leap in quality compared to the hotel in Osaka!
After being properly fed I leisurely packed up and set off. I left my luggage at the train station and then took the bus for a few stops.
The Life of the Samurai in Nagamachi
I could see everything at my leisure as there wasn’t much going on at that time of the day. The multi-layered structure of the walls around the gardens is interesting; they were almost like small fortress walls. The gardens themselves are also very beautiful. The sun shone and the weather was much better than the previous day.
Unfortunately, some of the attractions, such as the Shinise Kinenkan Museum, were closed. And even more unfortunately, the teahouse in Nomura-ke was closed as well. Would I have the opportunity to drink tea on the trip?
But it was still very interesting. In the former residence of the Nomura family, there is a small museum with some interesting finds (I’ll just say “thank you letter for bringing a head”) and a nice little garden. In the Maeda Tosanokami-ke you can find objects from the Maeda family, who built and lived in Kanazawa Castle. The Ashigaru Shiryokan Museum shows the life of the simple servants and foot soldiers, as well as the reconstructed residence of the Takada family.
I bought a few sweets in a bakery and then made my way back early.
Tea houses in the Higashi Chaya district
On the way to the Higashi Chaya Geisha district, I passed once more by the largest market in Kanazawa, Omicho. It is very close to the hotel, but I hadn’t had time the day before. Now I browsed around leisurely, marveled at the incredible variety of seafood, and bought myself a little something to eat. Since the market mainly sold fresh food, it was exciting, but it didn’t make much sense for me to buy anything. And so I walked on, for about a kilometer, over a large bridge.
Once again no tea for JasmineâŠ
There are still many old teahouses in the Higashi Chaya district, and in some of them, you can also book geisha performances or (of course) a tea ceremony. But (of course) everything only with reservations months in advance. This is definitely a lesson for the future – many attractions are not accessible spontaneously or with only a few days’ advance planning. So I admired the buildings from the outside and then ate an ice cream covered in gold leaf in Hakuichi. It looked great, but the taste (once again) was rather mediocre. But the shop also had many other things covered in gold leaf, and so I was able to pick up a few nice souvenirs – rice crackers with gold leaf, matcha tea with gold leaf – you name it đ
I then passed a sake shop and remembered the lovely drinks in the hotel. In Kyoto I had been too stupid (and too drunk), but here – last chance! Unfortunately, they didn’t have the exact same selection as the hotel, so I had to improvise a bit. I ended up with 3 small bottles of Kagatobi.
Coincidences happen!
On the way to the train station, I was suddenly approached by a person who obviously knew me, but unfortunately I didn’t know them. This was of course also due to the (ubiquitous) FFP mask, and the fact that I was more conspicuous with green hair and a long nose. Yes⊠that was the waiter from Hanano! Hard to believe – Kanazawa has “only” a little over a million inhabitants, so the chances are really goodâŠ
So this was the second “reunion” – but it wasn’t to be the last! We chatted animatedly, but of course, I didn’t want to miss my train. Hello waiter – if you ever come to Germany, let me know!
I had some time left at the station, so I bought two more small bottles of different sake, among other things. Then it was time to say goodbye. The Shinkansen took me back to Ueno, as reliable as ever. And that was the end of my little tour.