Japan - Tour Day 6 - Kanazawa

We spent the whole day in Kanazawa today. The city has a long history and is a mix of modern and ancient Japan. It was once the seat of a powerful feudal lord who lived in a castle in the center of the city and was surrounded by housing for the samurai warriors and everywhere are both Shinto shrines and Buddhist temples.

This morning, there were still a few sprinkles, but not too bad. We first took the local bus to Myoryuji Temple, which is nicknamed the Ninjya Temple. From the outside, it looks like a two story temple. But, on the inside there are seven levels and many hidden staircases and traps to deceive and trick the enemy. (Think Winchester Mystery House, but older and cooler!) Then we we went to another outdoor, covered market place with what seemed like hundreds of stalls with fish merchants, florists, restaurants and the like. Nan had a gigantic rock oyster while I had wasabi ice cream - we were both happy! From there, we went to a gold leaf craft house practicing the UNESCO recognized tradition of making gold leaf by hand. We used some of their gold leaf to paint our own sets of chopsticks - it was way more enjoyable than I was expecting it to be. We walked around another district that used to be the party zone for the local merchants. The buildings were not made with the best material because the merchants anticipated that they would be required to tear the buildings down at any moment. Yet, many of the buildings are still standing several hundreds of years later. As our final excursion for the day, went to visit the Kanazawa Castle which has one of the top 3 Japanese gardens in Japan on its grounds. The castle itself was destroyed during the war, but some of the original fortress walls still exist. And, mush of the castle has been reconstructed and is quite spectacular. Another local bus and we were back to the hotel to rest up for tomorrow…