Sunday 29th March
Kanazawa
A taxi to Kenroku-en Gardens, where a nice Irish lady, who we had seen at breakfast, was standing close to us in the queue for tickets. Cautiously she said that over 65s were allowed in without charge - an occasion where I certainly didn't take offence. I had to dig out our passports, but well worth it!
A gentle wander round the gardens. It was quite noticeable that the cherry blossom wasn't as in bloom as it had been in Kyoto.
Walk round the castle - some very impressive stone walls. Lunch of ice cream, green tea flavour for Jo, 'normal' tea for me. I had intended to choose chocolate, but a combination of my non-varifocal sunglasses and my sun-hat meant I just pointed to something that looked brown. Jo noticed, but I thought that by that stage it would be too late to change the order as I had already paid and feared the price for chocolate might be different and couldn't face the possible language confusion.
Walking down from the gardens' entrance I noticed a shop selling second-hand kimonos, priced by the kilogram. I thought that was quite novel, but of course there was a catch, the nicer kimonos cost more per kilo!
Next the Ohi Museum. This is a museum displaying the heritage of Ohi-ware pottery. Going back over 350 years this dynasty has been handed down from father to son, and is noted for not having been produced using a potters wheel. And to the uneducated eye it looked exactly like that - I think Chloe might have something similar tucked away somewhere! Not very inspiring and one couldn't go in wearing shoes, having to change into the most uncomfortable 'sandals'. I spent the whole visit shuffling around like an old person!
Before we reached the museum, on a most urban road we stopped to look at a tree, as one does. What caught my eye was a notice describing the tree. On a lot of notices, in the gardens, castle, Ohi Museum, there is normally a section in English, but not on this tree. Google Translate has a fantastic feature that allows one to photograph some text and it will translate it. Unless one speaks both languages, one isn't really sure of the accuracy of the translation, but this one indicated we had found an 'Umbrella Pine'. Ken had already put us on alert to look out for this species as it is very rare (and threatened?) Ken posed a similar challenge when we visited Australia in 2022, and on that occasion we had also found the plant in question.
Our last destination for the day was the samurai district, but on our way we stumbled across a market, thronged with people on a Sunday afternoon, buying all sorts of produce.
The Samurai district is a delightful area of narrow streets with wooden houses hidden behind plastered walls, coloured, or painted, brownish-beige. A lovely warm afternoon to wander around. We stopped to look around one house that was open; it had a pretty garden/courtyard and a barn where the horses would have been kept. (All a bit familiar!)
Walked back to the station to find out where we are supposed to catch the bus tomorrow. Yet again I'm glad we did, trying to find the right bus stop in a rush tomorrow morning could have proved very difficult.
Before we left the hotel this morning we asked the hotel to recommend a restaurant for this evening, which they did and said they would make a reservation for 7:30. Just after getting back after our day's adventures the phone in the room rang. With dread I answered it expecting the usual language barrier to kick in. I needn't have worried; the receptionist said in the clearest English that the recommended restaurant was fully booked and that she had booked an alternative, but that it was for 7:00. I said that was fine, I think to her relief.
A taxi to the restaurant, Steak Katase. Like the sushi restaurant yesterday, it didn't have UK style tables, but instead a bar with chairs. In Steak Katase the bar was a J shape, and in front of every two or three places was a hotplate on which vegetables were fried and steaks grilled. I chose one of the cheaper cuts of sirloin, absolutely delicious but not too big, and Jo had prawns. To my eyes the prawns were enormous, but Jo reports they were also delicious. (oishi - my favourite Japanese word as it always puts a broad smile on the recipient. I believe it means delicious, but, with my pronunciation, could mean something completely different!)
There was some theatre to the cooking; the steak finally being doused in brandy and flamed - I thought the restaurant was about to go up in flames! There was no question as to how one would like one's steak cooked - it was cooked according to the chef. Perhaps British people could learn to trust the chef.
On the list of recommended restaurants provided by the hotel I noticed that 'Steak Katase' was described as Teppanyaki. A bit more research later revealed that "Teppanyaki (鉄板焼き) is a Japanese style of cooking where food is prepared on a large, flat iron griddle, typically right in front of guests."