Kenrokuen

On the way to Kenrokuen, we passed an intersection with a Jizo statue (Korinbo Jizoson). Opposite the Jizo, there was a three-dimensional map of Kanazawa, and we studied our Kanazawa itinerary there.

Following the main road, we reached the Mayumizaka Gate entrance of Kenrokuen and bought tickets to enter. The weather was great, the temperature was comfortable, and there were still few tourists, but quite a few staff members were sweeping the grounds. After looking at the map, we decided to go to Kasumiga-ike Pond first, only to find that all the visitors were already gathered around the pond. The highlight of Kasumiga-ike is Karasaki Pine. The tree is nearly 200 years old. From a distance, it looks like it's growing out of the pond, but up close we realized there are many pillars in the water holding up its branches that reach over the surface. When Bobo visited six years ago, he saw the yukitsuri ropes on the pine and even had an extremely sweet red bean soup by the pond (Bobo is honestly suspicious someone slipped and dumped the whole sugar jar in while cooking).

Near the Gankou-Bashi (Flying Geese Bridge), several gardeners wearing straw hats and face coverings were sitting on the ground carefully tending the grass. Along with the people sweeping the gravel paths and cleaning the waterways, they truly are the unsung foundation of Kenrokuen.

We continued past the Meiji Monument and Hanami-Bashi (Flower Viewing Bridge) and eventually looped back to Hisago-ike Pond. By then, there were already many tourists, so we exited through Renchi-mon Gate—only to find even more people outside. From there we headed straight to the chaya district, because Nana's main target for the day, Shogyotei, is on a hillside near the teahouse area.

Higashi Chaya District

Winding east and west along the road, we first passed the sleek building of the Nagoya High Court Kanazawa Branch, then crossed the Asano River via Tenjin Bridge. There were fewer tourists here. We continued through small alleys toward Higashi Chaya District, and near the district entrance we saw a sign introducing the "Path of the Heart". Jukyoji Temple is on the other side of the street. Next to the temple, there was a stone monument carved with seven names and the character for "grave." Bobo told Nana that this was a burial site, and she gave up the idea of going into the temple. Only after returning to Taiwan did we learn that it was the Nanaine Jizo, commemorating seven people who spoke up for the people when rice prices soared 160 years ago.

Fumurochaya

Although the teahouses are important traditional buildings in Kanazawa, Nana's real target this time was Fumurochaya. There were people waiting inside, but we didn't have to wait long, since the shop only serves three or four kinds of sweets. Yudo-bo seems particularly fond of this place, which in turn sparked Nana's interest. The star of the dessert is actually the beautifully presented white glutinous rice balls—it felt like bringing a bag of sweet potato starch to a dessert shop and eating red bean soup with rice balls in Taipei instead. 🤣

Kazu Nakashima

Last time Bobo came, the line was huge. The entrance to the shop is shared with another restaurant?! We told someone who looked like a staff member that we wanted to dine in and were guided upstairs. After asking a few more questions, we were finally told that the entrance to the daifuku shop was actually on the left side. There were models of the daifuku at the counter. In Taiwan, we would call sweets of this size and shape "baozi"… they were really huge! We originally planned to eat inside, so we sat in the waiting area, but in the end, worried we wouldn't be able to finish lunch, we switched to takeout instead.

Shogyotei

We had lunch in a private room, with a large glass window right beside the table. Even though it was drizzling, we could still see Kanazawa Castle. The first server who brought our food seemed quite serious and carefully explained how to enjoy the stone-grilled blackthroat seaperch rice. In the second half, either a different server took over or the serious one finally relaxed, because she kept laughing while talking to us about dessert. She seemed to be asking whether we wanted coffee or ice cream for dessert. Bobo chose ice cream, and after a round of rapid-fire Japanese, we finally decided to pull out Google Translate. The translation read, "Only ice cream? You don't like coffee?" …Wait, doesn't that mean there was no need to choose in the first place? Then the three of us burst out laughing in the private room.

Kanazawa Castle

At this point, we didn't have anywhere in particular we wanted to go, and it was still raining, so we walked back toward the hotel along "Hakuchoro," the path outside Kanazawa Castle (there are some sculptures along the way). When we reached the area outside Kenrokuen, we realized we were already close to the entrance of Kanazawa Castle, so we decided to wander in. As soon as we stepped through Ishikawa-mon Gate, we both went "wow" and were completely blown away, immediately stepping back a few paces to start taking photos.

We first went up to Kahoku-mon Gate and looked out over "Kanazawa Castle Park." There were many crows in the square. There was an exhibition inside the gate, but we skipped it. Then we strolled through Sannomaru Square, headed toward Gojukken Nagaya, and went through Hashizume-mon. We noticed that Ninomaru was under construction, seemingly being rebuilt using traditional methods. Next to it was a paid route, so we bought tickets to enter Gojukken Nagaya. Inside, there were various exhibits about Kanazawa Castle, such as the structure of the old walls and roofs and how the beams and pillars are joined.

After finishing Gojukken Nagaya, the weather improved, and we wandered over to Sanjukken Nagaya (a rather plain building, especially right after seeing Gojukken Nagaya) and Gyokusen'inmaru Garden. After taking a bunch of random photos, we left through Nezumita-mon. I'm not sure if there used to be a lot of mice there, but there are certainly a lot of crows in front of the gate now.

Later, when we talked about the day, Nana said that when she watched videos before the trip, it seemed like Bobo wasn't very interested in Kanazawa Castle, so she didn't plan it into the itinerary. In reality, what Bobo wasn't interested in was the nighttime illumination show at Kanazawa Castle. Thankfully, we still wandered in leisurely during the day and got to see an incredible view.

Oyama Shrine

The shrine enshrines the successive lords of the Kaga Domain and features a statue of Maeda Toshiie (the first lord) on horseback, wearing a horo cloak.