Hirami Pan

A breakfast place recommended by Xiao Ge. We arrived just in time to get a seat. Although it was pretty good, seeing the increasingly long line outside made it taste absolutely amazing. After eating, we went to the bakery next door to buy bread for trail food and also grabbed a bag of "yesterday's leftover discounted bread" from next to the counter… and it was so good we almost didn't make it out of the intersection alive.

Nagamachi Samurai District

It took us a while to figure out how to parse this place name: "Nagamachi · Samurai · Residence · Ruins"—it refers to the remains of the houses where samurai in Nagamachi lived. We first visited the Takanishi House, then went to the Shimizu House. Since the Takanishi House's bathroom was for display only (though it looked quite modern), we had to use the modernized bathroom at the Shimizu House. These small wooden houses were open for free exploration, but entering the Nomura House required a ticket, since it's more luxurious.

The Nomura House entrance had samurai armor, and inside there was a letter of thanks written by Akechi Mitsuhide. There was also a Buddhist hall with "The mind itself is Buddha" written at the top center, a calligraphy screen on the left, and a rubbing of "Portrait of Master Xuanzang" on the right. It was here that Bobo first realized the entire residence complex was "reconstructed," because the rubbing's inscription read "Republic of China Year 22…"

21st Century Museum of Contemporary Art, Kanazawa

We had made a reservation first thing in the morning to visit the swimming pool we'd been looking forward to, and we rushed over from the samurai houses. But even with a reservation, we still had to wait a long time, so we just took a few photos by the pool and gave up. Nana bought three eyeglass cleaning cloths here as souvenirs.

Nagamachi Samurai District

After saying goodbye to the swimming pool floor we never got to see, we immediately returned to the samurai houses to continue exploring, though we'd pretty much seen everything. We went into two shops selling Kutani ware, but nothing really caught our eye. Most importantly, the two shops had overlapping inventory, so they were probably just distributors/retailers. 🤣

Unagi Fukuri

For lunch, we originally wanted to eat at "Nodoguro Meshi" next door, but there were too many people waiting, so we went into "Unagi Fukuri" instead. There were only three customers inside, and no line—big plus. Although the owner was running everything by himself, we didn't have to wait too long.

Kanazawa Station

We took a bus to Kanazawa Station, since we'd be staying near the station tonight to make it easier to go home tomorrow. When we got on, we were still confused about how things worked. We noticed the machine by the door had printed out a small ticket, but just as we reached for it, the machine swallowed it back up! We worried the whole way about what to do when we got off, but when we did, the driver was completely calm and didn't react at all—he just had us drop coins in.

Sanrio Kanazawa Forus Store @Forus

After checking in, we were planning to go to Montbell, but Nana got sucked into the Sanrio store on the way and bought a gift for Sunny.

Montbell

We browsed around for a while but only bought freeze-dried rice and toe socks. Bobo didn't see the short-sleeved shirt he wanted to buy, and the staff said it was because of the season change. When checking out, the staff asked if we needed tax-free shopping. Bobo looked at the basket and said, "I don't think this amount qualifies for tax-free," and we both burst out laughing.

Kojitsu Sanso

We walked to Kojitsu Sanso thirty minutes before closing—it's actually just a counter inside a department store. Nana bought a pair of "cute" shoes.

Menya Tatsu

Nana wanted ramen, and when we got to Menya Tatsu, we saw several Westerners in line. We thought about going somewhere else, but the ramen shop across the street also had a long line, so we decided to stick with it (absolutely refusing to go to McDonald's). Thankfully it was pretty good.