Kanazawa and Animal Cafes
We had 2 sets of friends visit us from the USA, with some time overlapping so we decide to take a trip to Kanazawa and do some group traveling! With cherry blossoms doing their thing in spring, I was hoping my first visit to Kanazawa to be full of drifting sakura petals and beautiful weather!
Kenrokuen Garden
After a 2.5 hour ride on the JR Thunderbird Express from Osaka, we arrived and met up at the Kanazawa Station, grabbed a quick bite of Omurice (Japanese Omelet Rice) and then headed over to the famous garden. The Kenrokuen Garden has been around for centuries, and it is quite big and well kept. While the garden was nice, it would have been a bit nicer if we had caught the cherry blossoms at the right time. Unfortunately, we were about 1-2 weeks, and the Sakura trees were mostly sprouting leaves and lost most of their petals. I had no idea Sakura trees just look like regular trees after their short blooming period, but they have been seemingly planted at strategic places all over river banks and parks. I suppose it makes the blooming period that much more unique and special, but it’s all over quickly.
Some small crowds around the last of the Sakuras, might as well stop for the ‘gram.
Kanazawa Castle
The castle seems to have been destroyed and is in the process of a slow rebuild. So maybe not the most impressive or authentic, but there was some interesting windows/trap doors where the inhabitants could drop stones/arrows/hot stuff on invaders storming the castle entries and walls. I would also imagine they were good in the summer time for letting the breeze through.
Sushi
Sushi is a popular choice in Kanazawa, since it faces the Sea of Japan and gets a different variety of fish as compared to the Pacific Ocean. However, the most unusual feature of the local sushi is the use of gold leaf to add a little color. It turns out, Kanazawa is a hot bed of gold leaf and they use it on everything. Who needs iron in their diet, if you can get gold instead! (I am not a doctor, this is not medical advise…)
The little squid (Hotaru Ika) was also in season, so that was an interesting new item for me. I just had a new product idea in Japan… they should have a booklet of all the possible sushi/sashimi and you can collect a stamp as you taste each one. It would probably be a pretty thick book, but a way to remember and share all the seasonal and unusual stuff you would encounter… with of course a bunch of blank pages too for future innovations.
Higashi Chayamachi
It turns out there are more than one historic districts in Kanazawa, so we decided to check out the one most popular with many gift shops, tea shops and gold leaf. Hold up, is that gold ice cream? Sure, why not!
For gold lovers, there were sake, face wipes, snacks and a whole lot of gifts on the gold theme. Since the gold leaf is pretty thin, it might not be affected much with the volatility in gold prices.
Animal Cafe
When walking around the neighborhood, we found an Animal Cafe which can be described as a mini petting zoo with some food/drinks while you chill with the critters. We hung with a number of birds, owls, hamsters and small furries with opportunities to feed and hold them. This was a big hit with the kids!
The animals were quite well behaved and didn’t mind being around humans.
The place charges for the time spent, plus they force you to buy some drinks and such. However, for the care of the hefty variety of animals, I imagine it must be pretty expensive to run the the place.
Since M is a big fan of cats, we may have to hit up a Cat Cafe, which is a similar concept but with a whole herd of felines! We should probably bring some band-aids for the inevitable scratches!
Summary
We had a wonderful time with our friends visiting, and it was a great way to catch up with what’s going on back in Silicon Valley. I enjoyed getting a chance to speak English for a bit too, sometimes it’s a bit challenging/frustrating to speak only in Japanese for months at a time:). We can’t wait to see them again soon!