Kanazawa

Introduction

Kanazawa is the capital city of Japan's Ishikawa Prefecture in the Chubu region, which is situated along the west coast of the main island facing the Sea of Japan. Like Kyoto, Kanazawa is a city of modernity with reminiscence of history that can be traced quite far back in history. Not many people mention nor visit Kanazawa because it is too hard to access from all the major international airports. There is currently no Shinkansen that runs to the Hokuriku region either until late 2015, but that is what makes this place a true hidden gem of Japan.

"Kana(金)" means gold while the last part "Zawa(沢)" means swamp or marsh. This area was ruled during the Sengoku era by the Maeda clan, and the most notable of them all was Maeda Toshiie, who was the founder of the Kaga domain. As told by native Kanazawans, there is a legend to the name Kanazawa. It was said that there was once a potato farmer named Togoro and one day he found a sack full of gold flakes. While he was on his way to buy food and clothing he came along this rice paddy where a flock of wild goose were and tried to find a rock to throw at them to scare them off. Unfortunately he couldn't find any and threw his sack full of gold flakes. When he got back he was scolded by his wife Wago, but said in defense that "we can make it back or maybe even more by selling our potatoes." After that they went to their field to harvest some potatoes, and while washing them at a near by fountain, a stream of gold flakes came out instead and became rich. This route is recognized by the Kaga clan and a well with in Kenrokuen (one of the 3 famous landscape gardens in Japan) called "Kinjo Reitaku" was created to commemorate this event.

Sights and Activities

There are plenty of sightseeing places just within the city of Kanazawa alone, both modern and traditional. What beats getting off of the train at a station and already being at one of those famous sightseeing spots within the city? Kanazawa is just that. After you get off the train at Kanazawa station you are greeted by the 2 newly finished structures of Omotenashi Dome and Tsuzumimon (both finished in 2005). Omotenashi Dome is a huge glassed-roof complex which also holds a stage for various events to take place. If you walk further down to the main street you will see a huge bronze coloured wooden gate like object called Tsuzumimon. This may look like a gate but the concept was for it to be made like a 'tsuzumi' which is a type of single-handed drum used in Noh plays. Since Noh drama is deeply rooted into Kanazawan culture, they made the choice of using it as a greeting symbol to receive travelers and visitors.

Right in the heart of the city is where Kanazawa Castle once stood before it was burnt down in 1888. There is a reconstruction project going on but however only part of it has been restored up to this date. Beside the castle ruins is a huge Japanese style landscape garden called Kenrokuen. This is one of the three most famous Japanese gardens in Japan along with Korakuen in Okayama and Kairakuen in Mito. You can walk along the same paths during different times of the season and have a totally different experience and feel. During the winter time they have illuminations and also coils called 'yukitsuri' wrapped around the trunks and branches to prevent the snow from damaging the trees.

What is a trip to Japan without visiting samurai districts? This 'bukeyashiki' (samurai district) within the Nagamachi district is well preserved and you can really feel that you are actually walking back in time when it was still feudal Japan. You can see many of the mud and stone walls and 'komo' or straw mats that act like covers to shelter the walls from being worn away by snow in the winter.

Events and Festivals

Traditional Festivals

Japan has countless traditional festivals and holidays. Then when you add the local festivals that number just grows and grows. Here is a list of the few major national traditional festivals.

• Japanese New Year (January 1) - the most important holiday in Japan. Although there are lots of customs and traditions most of them are done in the private. This is mainly a family holiday and Japan can feel very empty as almost everyone goes home. Travelling in Japan in during this time is difficult because everything is shut down.
• Seijin No Hi (2nd Monday of January) - the coming of age holiday for Japanese women which 20. Traditionally families will buy any young woman how turned 20 in the last year a kimono. On this day almost all Japanese women will ear a kimono.
• Hin Festival (March 3) - Also known as doll festival the Hin Matsuri festival is meant for young women. In early february families with daughters put dolls in order to make the women happy and healthy later in life. On Girls Day, on March 3, the dolls are put away until next year.
• Shichi Go San Festival (Novermber 5) - Boys who are 3 and 5, and girls 3 and 7 are taken to a shinto shrine in traditional Japanese dress. The children are brought there to pray for good luck, good health and wealth.

National Holidays

• Golden Week - Is quite often referred to as the "Japanese Spring Break." It is a combination of many state holidays, including Showa Day, Greenery Day, Children's Day, and Constitution Memorial Day in order to give a full week off. It takes place during the first full week of May. Everyone gets this week off in Japan so it is very bad time to travel because everything is crowded, expensive and most hotels will be full. There is also a major festival in the southern city of Fukuoka this week, it is called Hakata Dontaku.

Anime relation

The city of Kanazawa has grown in popularity since 2011 since the anime 'Hanasaku Iroha' came out. Since then, many more Japanese as well as people from all around the world come to visit the city and see the anime sites. The story of 'Hanasaku Iroha' takes place in a nearby hot springs town called 'Yuwaku' where a 16 year old girl try to live a new life working for her grandmother's 'ryokan' (Japanese styled inn) called 'Kissuiso'. While Kissuiso does not really exist, many of the other structures, buildings and scenery are actually drawn from real life. The most recognizable will be the welcome sign to Yuwaku Hotsprings with all the different 'ryokan' names written under it. Other recognizable spots are the samurai district, Tsuzumimon and the Shiinoki Cultural Complex building of Ishikawa Prefecture.

There is a festival called 'Bonbori matsuri' which takes place around the 2nd week of October to commemorate the anime. The festival itself actually developed within the anime. For this festival, people will write their wishes on wooden boards and then they put it in to a wooden cart and sends them off for it to come true in the near future. During the festival there will also be paper lanterns lighted up with wishes written on them being sailed off in a river nearby. If you are interested in anime or want to see something amazing and spectacular, I would recommend at least coming to see this once.

Weather

Kanazawa has a subtropical humid climate with warm, wet summers and winters which don't see much rain but snow in January and February is quite heavy at 1-1,5 metres a month. Summers last from June to September when average highs are mostly between 25 and 31 °C and nights are between 17 and 23 °C. Winters from December to February see highs of 6-10 °C and lows of 0-3 °C. Unlike many Japanese places, the total montly precipitation is higher in winter because of the combination of high amounts of snow combined with still some rain. Most of the rain proper falls from April to September though.

Getting There

By Plane

Komatsu Airport (KMQ) has regular domestic flights to Tokyo, Fukuoka, Sapporo and Okinawa, as well as international flights to Shanghai Pudong International Airport, Taipei and Seoul.

By Train

Japan Railways offers the Hokuriku line linking Kanazawa with Fukui (50 minutes), Kyoto (2¼ hours), Osaka (2¾ hours) and Toyama (35 minutes). From Tokyo take the Jōetsu shinkansen and change at Echigo-Yuzawa in Northern Honshū (four hours). The Nanao line connects Kanazawa with Wakura Onsen on Noto-hantō (one hour).

By Bus

Hokutetsu Kanko Bus Company has express buses from Kanazawa station’s east exit, to Tokyo (7½ hours), Yokohama (eight hours), Kyoto (4¼ hours) and Nagoya (four hours).

Getting Around

By Public Transport

The city has a great bus system for tourists. The loop busses created just for travelers and visitors which takes them around the city and to the famous sightseeing spots. Most of the sightseeing spots are within a walking distance from either Kanazawa station or the entertainment district of Korinbo there is really no need to waste money or transportation.

By Bike

If you want to get from one spot to one spot faster then renting a bicycle is recommended.

Eat

Even though the Kaga province does no exist anymore, the cuisine which they have had back then still remains. Things they would eat are dishes like 'jibuni' (治部煮) which is a soup dish with duck meat. The duck is covered in flour before it is cooked in a pot with a sukiyaki like soup base. Other things they would add to the dish are vegetables and jibuni meatballs. Jibuni meat balls are made from the remaining bones and meat still stuck on the bones and grinding them in to a fine paste. Then they form them into balls and cook them in the sukiyaki soup. Other dishes they will serve along side are all made with local vegetables and seafood.

Aside from traditional cuisine, Kanazawa has created many modern gourmet food items which are currently only available within Kanazawa while some are spreading all around Japan and the world. One of these item is Kanazawa Curry. The thing which makes Kanazawa Curry so different from the other curries around Japan is that the sauce is much more thick and brown like gravy. They also like to serve cabbage as a topping along with the curry. The taste is much richer and because the curry is too thick, they prepare a fork for you to eat instead of a spoon.

Other special creations you can find within the city are Melon pan Ice and Coronette Ice. Melon-pan Ice is where they put two of Japan's favourite desserts together as one. Melon-pan is a round-shaped bread with a crusted layer on the top covered in sugar with patterns made to imitate a melon. They will cut it in half and put either vanilla or chocolate ice cream inside, kind of like the modern day classic Ice Cream sandwich in the west. If you have a tooth for sweet-things, this is a must try when you head to Kanazawa. The other one is called Coronette Ice and it looks just like a swirl of ice cream on top of a freshly baked Coronette.

Sleep

Learn

• Kanazawa University

Keep Connected

Internet

Manga cafes are dotted along the streets of almost every city in Japan. For a very reasonable price (about ¥100 per 15 minutes), you receive a private cubicle with a PC with internet access at blistering Japanese internet speeds. The chairs are incredibly comfortable (making them an excellent place to sleep for the cash-deprived), and you can even order snacks and drinks from the staff.

A number of business hotels have Internet access available if you have your own device, sometimes for free. It is also possible to find Wi-Fi "hot spots" around many large cities in Japan, especially near tech-related businesses and large corporate buildings with unsecured wireless networks. 3G Wireless Data and Pocket Wifi are other options.

Phone

See also: International Telephone Calls

Payphones (公衆電話 kōshū denwa) are easily found, particularly near train stations, although with the popularity of mobile phones, public pay phones are not quite as numerous as they once were. Gray and green pay phones accept ¥10 and ¥100 coins and prepaid cards. Be aware that not all places with public telephones have phones that accept coins, so it may be worthwhile to buy a phone card for emergency use. Some of the gray phones, as indicated on the display, can make international calls. Pre-paid cards can be purchased at convenience stores, train station kiosk stores and sometimes in vending machines next to the phone.

Modern Japanese mobile phones (携帯電話 keitai denwa or just keitai) tend to operate on unique cellular standards not always compatible with the rest of the world. 3G phones using the UMTS/WCDMA2100 standard and equipped with a 3G SIM card will most likely work. If your phone is up to spec, double-check with your carrier if they have a roaming agreement with either SoftBank or NTT DoCoMo. Coverage is generally excellent, unless you are heading to some remote mountainous areas. If you have no 3G phone but still have a 3G-compatible SIM card, you can rent a 3G phone in Japan and slot in your card, allowing you to keep your home phone number in Japan. For a longer trip, you can also purchase a phone, but doing this legally requires an Alien Registration Card (or an obliging Japanese friend willing to front for you).

The easier way is to get a prepaid phone. Prepaid phones are sold in most SoftBank and AU stores. If you already have a 3G phone, go with Softbank as it can sell SIMs as opposed to au whose prepaid service is phone-based like most CDMA carriers. Prepaid phones use a "card" with a pass key to "charge" a phone with minutes. These prepaid calling cards, unlike the phone itself, can be found in most convenience stores. A prepaid cell phone is available for as little as ¥5000 plus ¥3000 for a 60-90 day call time package, which will get drained at a rate of ¥100 per minute (¥10 per 6 seconds for AU's prepaid service). Both SoftBank and AU offer prepaid phones.

Post

The Japanese postal service is excellent! Domestic and international mail service is very quick and reliable. The prices for sending letters, postcards and parcels vary depending on where you send if from and to which country you send it too, and of course depends on weight as well, so check this calculation page of Japan Post for more details. Post offices generally are open from 9:00am to 5:00pm on weekdays, closing at weekends and also on national holidays, though a few open on Saturdays from 9:00am to 3:00pm. Central post offices are sometimes open until 7:00pm, open on Saturdays from 9:00am to 5:00pm and on Sundays and holidays from 9:00am to 12:30pm. There are post offices in every major city and minor town. Another thing to remember is that the post office is one of the few places in Japan that is guaranteed to have ATMs that take international cards.

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