While traveling it is always a wonderful experience to be completely surprised by a place. Kanazawa was not one of the cities I had high expectations for. I anticipated it to be nice, but was pleasantly shocked to discover an enchanting city filled with unique sites. The first stop of the day was the Ninja Temple or Myoryuji (“Ninja-dera”). In order to get in you must book a tour. We booked our tour the day before at the tourist information booth at the train station. Entrance and the tour cost 800 Yen. Even though the tour is in Japanese, it was worth it in my opinion. The tour guide handed out English pamphlets that explained each room.
Yesterday, I explained a bit about the feudal system in Japan. Well, this temple was built by one of the daimyos and was built in a certain way to provide him the highest degree of safety while he prayed and acted as a watch tower on the outskirts of town. Since many daimyos were constantly apprehensive of an attack from another daimyo or the shogun himself, they took extreme measures to defend themselves. In 1643 Maeda Toshitune, the current daimyo, built a complex temple with 23 rooms and 29 staircases. During the Tokugawa shogunate, buildings could not be higher than three stories. To get around this law the temple was constructed with hidden floors. From the outside it appears to be two stories, but it has four stories with seven layers total. The building was constructed in a way to confuse and trap any shogunate spies or supporters of competitor daimyos. A loyal follower of the temple would be intimate with the nuances of the building and could quickly escape or entrap the enemy. The four floors include a trap door, hidden staircases, secret escape tunnels, and disgusted look out points. The back of one staircase was even made of paper. Someone walking up the staircase would think nothing was abnormal, but defenders hiding under the stairs could see the shadow of the intruder. This gives the defender a chance to stab the intruder with a spear between the steps.
There are many other interesting aspects of its construction. The roof is reinforced with thick curved beams to ensure it can withstand the heavy snowfall each winter and the typhoons of late summer/fall. The beams follow the natural curve of the tree to preserve its strength and weight loading ability. Supposedly the well in the courtyard leads to a secret tunnel that connects to Kanazawa castle. I do feel a bit suspicious that this has never been found… There are one way screens behind which the daimyo’s samurai could monitor the temple’s main hall, a room with a door that automatically locks from the outside in which samurai returning from a failed battle would be sent to honorably commit suicide, and a secret pray room only used by the daimyo. I highly recommend this temple. It was one of my favorite sites. Unfortunately, as we were leaving I asked the guide how many enemies had attacked the temple and how many samurai had committed suicide inside. All she said was, “Zero.” Not to wish ill on the dead, but the temple would have a bit more mystery about it if all these traps and what not had been put to use.
Next we headed to Kanazawa castle. It is possible to join a free English tour here. We were led around by a very nice volunteer. To be completely honest, it wasn’t very impressive to me. The original castle was one of the largest in feudal Japan, but was almost completely burned down in 1881. What stands now is several reconstructed weapon houses. The castle in a nice park, but doesn’t require much time. What I took away from the tour is that the Maeda family was extremely wealthy and powerful. Close to the castle is the Oyama Shrine. It is surrounded by a peaceful garden and a famous gate which has Dutch stained glass. At the shrine we met several families with young children in traditional garb. One family even obliged my request to take a photo with them. Apparently, on certain birthdays it is popular for families to dress up their children in traditional clothing and to take them to pray at the shrine.
Lunch was acquired at the Omicho fish market. Kanazawa is very famous for its fish due to the currents in the region, so we decided this was the place to drop some money on sashimi. The most famous dish in the city is kaisen-don (sashimi on top of rice). We looked up a famous restaurant, but in the process of trying to find it asked a local lady. She said, “No! I take you local place.” So we followed her as she weaved in and out of the crowds buying fish. We arrived at a hole in the wall place that looked like a bar. The seats were bar stools and the waiter could barely walk between the wall and the seated guests. The owner and his wife have been running this restaurant for five years, but had been at another location for the previous twenty. They were incredibly kind were very fun to interact with. The man held up a sign in English that said, “All rice you want is free”. The other guests were amused by our interactions with the owners and even stood up in order to make room for me to walk behind the counter to be in a photo with them.
I have mentioned this before but Kanazawa produces 99% of Japan’s gold leaf. There is even a museum. We didn’t go to it, but right next to it is a gold leaf store and inside you can decorate chopsticks, jewelry, mirrors, etc. Tim’s host recommended we try it. For 600 Yen we decorated chopsticks. The elderly man who instructed us was very friendly and even grabbed some of my gold leaf and ate it. I don’t think I will be a professional craftsman anytime soon, but it was definitely worth 6 USD.
The end of the day was divided between the geisha district, dinner with Naho (Tim’s host), and the samurai district. The geisha district was built by the Maeda family in order to easily tax the woman, keep the area safe, to promote the arts, and to monitor those who came and went. Something I did not mention earlier is that Kanazawa’s separation from the rest of the country by mountains isolated it from outside influence, kept it from many of the power struggles that plagued the rest of the country, and gave it three centuries of peace during which to foster cultural development and the arts. The geisha district was nice, but doesn’t need that much time to explore. There is one main street worth checking out. Be prepared to pay high prices to enjoy one of the geisha houses turned tea shops. It is possible to go inside several of the houses and to see how the geishas lived. We opted not to pay the 1,700 Yen/ 17 USD.
Dinner with Naho was delightful. She is a student studying radiology and she took us to a ramen shop. Most importantly she took us to partake in one of Japan’s odd pastimes- Photo booths. That’s right- PHOTO BOOTHS. I am talking about photo booths on a grandiose scale. There is even an area dedicated to curling your hair and doing your make-up in preparation. We all go in and she madly starts hitting different settings. After all the photos were taken, you can edit them and add text. The whole thing was absurd but completely entertaining. Apparently, the three of us were ideal models. Naho’s face wasn’t edited at all. On the contrary the three of us had our faces trimmed down, our eyes enlarged, our lips brightened, and our ears reshaped. To finish off the evening we walked through one of Japan’s most famous samurai districts. Since it was so late, everything was shut down. If you want to get a glimpse of samurai life, you can go inside the Nomura House. I learned a few interesting facts about the samurai. One was that the height of the exterior wall of the house was dictated by the social status of the samurai. The higher the status the higher the wall. Also, I had always thought of samurai simply as a fighting class. They were actually the nobility who were born into that role. They were comparable to the European knights we are more familiar with. They made up the armies but were also title holding upper class citizens.
Next up Takayama!
Yesterday, I explained a bit about the feudal system in Japan. Well, this temple was built by one of the daimyos and was built in a certain way to provide him the highest degree of safety while he prayed and acted as a watch tower on the outskirts of town. Since many daimyos were constantly apprehensive of an attack from another daimyo or the shogun himself, they took extreme measures to defend themselves. In 1643 Maeda Toshitune, the current daimyo, built a complex temple with 23 rooms and 29 staircases. During the Tokugawa shogunate, buildings could not be higher than three stories. To get around this law the temple was constructed with hidden floors. From the outside it appears to be two stories, but it has four stories with seven layers total. The building was constructed in a way to confuse and trap any shogunate spies or supporters of competitor daimyos. A loyal follower of the temple would be intimate with the nuances of the building and could quickly escape or entrap the enemy. The four floors include a trap door, hidden staircases, secret escape tunnels, and disgusted look out points. The back of one staircase was even made of paper. Someone walking up the staircase would think nothing was abnormal, but defenders hiding under the stairs could see the shadow of the intruder. This gives the defender a chance to stab the intruder with a spear between the steps.
There are many other interesting aspects of its construction. The roof is reinforced with thick curved beams to ensure it can withstand the heavy snowfall each winter and the typhoons of late summer/fall. The beams follow the natural curve of the tree to preserve its strength and weight loading ability. Supposedly the well in the courtyard leads to a secret tunnel that connects to Kanazawa castle. I do feel a bit suspicious that this has never been found… There are one way screens behind which the daimyo’s samurai could monitor the temple’s main hall, a room with a door that automatically locks from the outside in which samurai returning from a failed battle would be sent to honorably commit suicide, and a secret pray room only used by the daimyo. I highly recommend this temple. It was one of my favorite sites. Unfortunately, as we were leaving I asked the guide how many enemies had attacked the temple and how many samurai had committed suicide inside. All she said was, “Zero.” Not to wish ill on the dead, but the temple would have a bit more mystery about it if all these traps and what not had been put to use.
Next we headed to Kanazawa castle. It is possible to join a free English tour here. We were led around by a very nice volunteer. To be completely honest, it wasn’t very impressive to me. The original castle was one of the largest in feudal Japan, but was almost completely burned down in 1881. What stands now is several reconstructed weapon houses. The castle in a nice park, but doesn’t require much time. What I took away from the tour is that the Maeda family was extremely wealthy and powerful. Close to the castle is the Oyama Shrine. It is surrounded by a peaceful garden and a famous gate which has Dutch stained glass. At the shrine we met several families with young children in traditional garb. One family even obliged my request to take a photo with them. Apparently, on certain birthdays it is popular for families to dress up their children in traditional clothing and to take them to pray at the shrine.
Lunch was acquired at the Omicho fish market. Kanazawa is very famous for its fish due to the currents in the region, so we decided this was the place to drop some money on sashimi. The most famous dish in the city is kaisen-don (sashimi on top of rice). We looked up a famous restaurant, but in the process of trying to find it asked a local lady. She said, “No! I take you local place.” So we followed her as she weaved in and out of the crowds buying fish. We arrived at a hole in the wall place that looked like a bar. The seats were bar stools and the waiter could barely walk between the wall and the seated guests. The owner and his wife have been running this restaurant for five years, but had been at another location for the previous twenty. They were incredibly kind were very fun to interact with. The man held up a sign in English that said, “All rice you want is free”. The other guests were amused by our interactions with the owners and even stood up in order to make room for me to walk behind the counter to be in a photo with them.
I have mentioned this before but Kanazawa produces 99% of Japan’s gold leaf. There is even a museum. We didn’t go to it, but right next to it is a gold leaf store and inside you can decorate chopsticks, jewelry, mirrors, etc. Tim’s host recommended we try it. For 600 Yen we decorated chopsticks. The elderly man who instructed us was very friendly and even grabbed some of my gold leaf and ate it. I don’t think I will be a professional craftsman anytime soon, but it was definitely worth 6 USD.
The end of the day was divided between the geisha district, dinner with Naho (Tim’s host), and the samurai district. The geisha district was built by the Maeda family in order to easily tax the woman, keep the area safe, to promote the arts, and to monitor those who came and went. Something I did not mention earlier is that Kanazawa’s separation from the rest of the country by mountains isolated it from outside influence, kept it from many of the power struggles that plagued the rest of the country, and gave it three centuries of peace during which to foster cultural development and the arts. The geisha district was nice, but doesn’t need that much time to explore. There is one main street worth checking out. Be prepared to pay high prices to enjoy one of the geisha houses turned tea shops. It is possible to go inside several of the houses and to see how the geishas lived. We opted not to pay the 1,700 Yen/ 17 USD.
Dinner with Naho was delightful. She is a student studying radiology and she took us to a ramen shop. Most importantly she took us to partake in one of Japan’s odd pastimes- Photo booths. That’s right- PHOTO BOOTHS. I am talking about photo booths on a grandiose scale. There is even an area dedicated to curling your hair and doing your make-up in preparation. We all go in and she madly starts hitting different settings. After all the photos were taken, you can edit them and add text. The whole thing was absurd but completely entertaining. Apparently, the three of us were ideal models. Naho’s face wasn’t edited at all. On the contrary the three of us had our faces trimmed down, our eyes enlarged, our lips brightened, and our ears reshaped. To finish off the evening we walked through one of Japan’s most famous samurai districts. Since it was so late, everything was shut down. If you want to get a glimpse of samurai life, you can go inside the Nomura House. I learned a few interesting facts about the samurai. One was that the height of the exterior wall of the house was dictated by the social status of the samurai. The higher the status the higher the wall. Also, I had always thought of samurai simply as a fighting class. They were actually the nobility who were born into that role. They were comparable to the European knights we are more familiar with. They made up the armies but were also title holding upper class citizens.
Next up Takayama!
