Bullet Train to Kanazawa
Aug 5th - 7th, 2023
Our first trip on a bullet train! The JR "bullet train" is called the Shinkansen. The routes are extensive and take you all over Japan. You can use the pass for the fast trains as well as the local trains and buses. There are several different train companies with multiple lines, so you just have to make sure you get on the right train on the appropriate line. It's all a bit confusing until you get used to the system. We bought a 1 week JR unlimited pass and decided to make the most of it. We planned to visit 4 cities in 7 days! Kanazawa, Fuji, Nagoya and Kyoto. We love these trains!
Fist stop - Kanazawa. . It took us just a little over 2 hours to reach the city. It seemed like a quiet city and not as crowded - a nice welcome change from Tokyo (remember the Shibuya Scramble intersection!) The train station itself, has a beautiful and famous gate that is made in the traditional style of building with wood. In front of the arch is a water fountain clock that uses bubbles of water to show the time. It was pretty cool to watch when the time changed.
For dinner, we went to the famous Omicho Market to eat, but were greeted with a lot of closed stalls. Apparently a lot of the vendors start their day early and end early - oops. We had to make other plans for dinner, but got a good walk out of it anyway. The next day we went to the Omicho Market again, just in time to get a flight of craft beer for me and Scot while the kids bought gold leaf ice cream cones. The beers were 5/5 stars. . . the gold leaf ice creams were 3/5 stars - kids said they tasted like regular ice cream. That's disappointing.
Our full day in Kanazawa, we went to the Kanazawa Castle and Kenrokuen Garden, which are right next to each other, so we took a few hours in the morning to walk through and enjoy the nice day. There were some beautiful stone lamps like the famous Kotojitoro Lantern and various ponds, lakes and fountains. It was a nice walk with a couple panoramic views of the mountains and city.
Right across the street is the 21st Century Art Museum with some pretty strange and cool art. The funniest was a huge balloon laughing crying emoji. The weirdest was a projection of different human face parts on a face shaped balloon monitor - at least that is the best way I can describe this thing (see photo).
One of my favorite things about Kanazawa is their underground walkways. There is a system of underground "sidewalks" and pathways that enable you to walk around without having to deal with the traffic. They take you right to the hub of transportation - the train station.
