Kanazawa

During the weekend, I went to a place on the northern coast of Honshu called Kanazawa.

It was a really beautiful town and I am so glad I got to see it. I went to a place called the Kenrokuen Gardens. It is one of the most famous gardens in Japan and it was so beautiful. I love Japanese gardens – especially really large ones that have all sorts of different types of plants and flowers! It was so green and lush and it just looked like paradise. You can see in the photos how beautiful it actually is. Just looking at the photos now makes me want to jump into them and relive that moment right now because it was so peaceful and beautiful.

These are some poisonous mushrooms that we saw on the ground. I liked the colour of them so I wanted to take a photo.


While we were sitting down enjoying the scenery by the lake, some large trout came up to say hello.

They opened their huge mouths and were looking at us, wanting to give them some food. I wish I had some bread so that I could have seen them for a bit longer because they looked so funny with their mouths open!

Kanazawa also has some ruins of samarai houses.

We went into the restored houses to have a look at how the samarai used to live. The houses were beautiful and they had tatami mats in every single room. The garden in the backyard was so amazing to look at with a little pond and many green traditional Japanese plants and flowers. It was beautiful.

This is the tea room where they used to participate in tea ceremonies which is a traditional ceremony common for Japanese people.


The tea room door was so small that I had to duck to get into the room! The reason why it is so small is because you are supposed to kneel on your knees as you enter the door.

We weren’t supposed to crawl through this section because it is a window, but it was fun!


This is traditional Japanese calligraphy called syuji.

Many Japanese people are good at syuji as they have to study it throughout their schooling career. I want to learn how to do it too, but I think it takes a long time to get used to being graceful with the strokes of the brush. I have tried it a few times, but I definitely need more practise!

For dinner one night, we went to an izakaya which is a traditional Japanese pub. We all shared some sashimi and it tasted delicious, but my stomach wasn’t feeling too good that night so I couldn’t eat that much.


The next day we went to the markets.

These are some getta that were on sale. I love this photo. I love the way they display them lined up all in a row. They are the coolest looking shoes, but they are so uncomfortable to wear!

We also made our way to a foot onsen which is a foot spa.

It was free to enter so we had a dip in the water. The temperature of the water was so hot, and it was also a pretty hot day which made my entire body warm up in seconds! When I took my feet out they were bright red! It felt relaxing though and I think it would be good to use in winter when it gets really cold.

Just near the foot onsen was a small festival where many primary school-aged students were participating in a taiko (Japanese drums) competition. It was so amazing to watch because all of the students had so much talent.


Close to Kanazawa is a beach that you can drive on because the sand is so hard.

So Shinya’s friend took us for a drive along the beach. It was a little scary in the beginning because he was going really fast and the sand was really bumpy, but then he slowed down after that and it was fun to look out the window and take pictures of the scenery.

So that was Kanazawa! I would like to go back there if I ever get a chance!