Our decision to go to Kanazawa was rather spontaneous but so worth it! After getting shut down in the Alps in the rain, we decided that rain can’t stop culture. We booked two nights in the city and set out to explore.
Between the late 16th century and the late 19th century, Kanazawa was the seat of the powerful Maeda clan. Within the peaceful confines of the Edo period, the city grew rapidly, and the society invested heavily in arts and culture. And luckily for those of us visiting the city in modern times – as the city had no strategic importance during World War II, it was spared the devastating bombing that flattened other Japanese cities. The result is a wonderful city full of beautiful buildings, art, and culture.
One of our favorite things was visiting Myouryu-ji, nicknamed the “Ninja Temple” despite having nothing to do with Ninjas. The temple was built with trap doors, false floors, secret staircases, and tricky doors to thwart any trespassing enemies. We couldn’t take pictures so you’ll have to go see for yourself! (P.S. they insist on calling to make a reservation for the mandatory tour. We called from the courtyard because we didn’t know…)
After dinner one night, we wandered through the samurai district with its beautifully preserved houses from that era. It was late at night, and the weather kept others away. The rain hitting the stone road and our umbrella was all we could hear. We could imagine the year 1700 from this place and it was magical.
In one rainy culture blitz, we visited the D.T Suzuki museum, the free 21st century art museum, and the Kenroku-en garden. We started in the exceedingly peaceful museum dedicated to the life of Daisutzu Suzuki, a Zen teacher from Kanazawa. True to the nature of Zen, the museum was simple but profound. Afterwards, we headed to the understandably crowded indoor art exhibits of the free modern art space. One of our favorites was an underwater scene entirely created using flower petals. Although we were hoping the rain would let up for our walk through the garden, it did not. But it didn’t matter, it was still magnificent. It’s masterpiece of landscape and aesthetics, and pictures can’t really do it justice.
Yet another lucky coincidence for us was that during the weekend we were in town, Kanazawa was hosting some sort of “Jazz in the street” festival. This meant that anywhere we went, jazz floated through the air! Prior to coming here, we were feeling pretty bummed about the weather, but this awesome city really turned it around for us. We’re so glad we went. We headed south to Nagoya to see Obaachan on the way to our workstay in Hadano.
