SATURDAY 13TH MAY - KANAWAZA SIGHTSEEING

After arriving in Kanazawa yesterday afternoon we visited the apparently famous station with its very large glass dome roof and impressive structure out the front. I don't recall whether we were told the significance of the structure but it is hard to miss.

And it has a very clever fountain.

We vacated our very luxurious hotel this morning and headed for the Higashi Chaya District, a tea house area frequented by geisha girls where we visited a gold leaf factory with an associated retail outlet. We didn't see the process of turning small gold bars into microscopically thin gold leaf but we did see how they trimmed random sheets of gold leaf into precise square pieces for gold plating.

They gave us an insight as to how the gold plated effect is achieved in temples and other decorative areas. They even had gold plated walls in their toilets.

From there we went to the very impressive and famous Kenroku-en Garden developed about 300 years ago.

As is so common in this part of Japan, it has numerous waterways running through it, originally constructed for fire fighting purposes after a major fire several hundred years ago.

 

We then went to the Naga-machi Buke Yashiki District, the home of high level and medium level Samurai in the Samurai era. We gained an insight into how they and their servants lived.

 

As I am typing this, we are on Thunderbird #30 heading for Osaka. Before catching the train, we spent some time in the local fish market – similar produce to what we saw in Tokyo but much tidier in presentation.

Osaka tomorrow.