kanazawa

thanks to the magic of jet lag, we beat the crowds to Kenrokuen Gardens, which everyone keeps insisting on referring to as "one of Japan's top three most famous gardens" for some reason. it was a beautiful place with ponds and waterfalls and lots of mossy trees.

from there, we headed past Kanazawa Castle to an old samurai neighbourhood and visited a restored samurai-era home.

then we walked back north to Omi-cho Market, which was overflowing with seafood and tea leaves and fruits and vegetables, about 40% of which we could identify. we ate grilled eel on a skewer, batter-fried chicken & quail eggs, a tempura-potato ball that was strange and delicious, these cookies that were like frosted flakes + fortune cookies + ginger, and some kind of salty seaweed thing.

after a foot-break at our great little apartment, we got on a bus headed for the beach. a ninety-year-old man tried gamely to talk to us in Japanese + a few English words after we gave up a seat for him; he advised us not to go to the beach, although we couldn't figure out why. the beach was oddly full of litter (possibly from China!), but we found a cleaner area to sit and watch the sunset before making our way back home.

Kenrokuen Gardens

wasabi roots (foreground) and more