I just realized its already 5 months after our Japan trip, and I haven’t even gotten to the posts for half of the trip yet. So I better hurry up.
In the morning we made a trip to the 21st Century Museum of Contemporary Art, except that we showed up on the day the museum closed during the week. With that said, the special exhibition on paper art was open and it turned out to be a spectacular exhibition with very delicately laser cut paper art on display.
Afterwards, we were hungry so we found a restaurant in the neighborhood for lunch. The area around the museum had a lot of government offices so choices were a bit limited. We went to 旬菜焼 はざま Hazama. Set menu for lunch. Fancier eats for dinner. Curious what they serve for dinner, which was at a more elevated price, for Kanazawa, which generally had eats at a lower price point compared to the larger cities.
The chef had been around for 30 years. There were some photos of the younger version of him. He was very friendly.
We got the fish set meal and the sashimi rice bowl. Both very solid.
Homemade sorbet for a very hot day.
In the afternoon, we toured the Kenroku-en, rated as one of the top Japanese garden in Japan, and justifiably so.
And then to the Higashi Chaya district in late afternoon, a traditional neighborhood with teahouses and geishas, and shops selling gold leaf crafts where geisha perform, plus shops selling gold-leaf crafts. Kanazawa itself is literally called ‘Gold Marsh’. One of the streets were highly recommended for the sunset, and its indeed very photogenic with minimal tourists.
This, right in the middle of a modern city. Its like Kyoto without the crowds.
And after that we grabbed dinner at 割烹 魚常 Uotsune across the river where we reserved a table.