Munching our way from Kanazawa to Kyoto

Since Tokyo we have mostly been off the normal path for tourists, but as we got to Kanazawa and especially Kyoto they were already starting to swarm, I can’t even imagine what it would have been like in a few weeks when the cherry blossoms burst forth.

Kanazawa

Through the Snow

We left Takayama on snowy morning, having 3 transfers with local trains since we didn’t book express tickets early enough. One of the transfers was at the end of 2 different lines that met at a tiny little station, just enough for bathrooms and a vending machine. The views from the train between the tunnels were truly spectacular, though.

We got to Kanazawa at about noon and had read about a restaurant in the station known for its Noto pork cutlet. It took a bit to hunt down and we had to wait in line for a little bit before being seated. We both got the traditional lunch set that included the fried pork, cabbage, seaweed rice, miso soup, and unlimited iced tea.

The fun part was the soup, rice, and cabbage were also unlimited! They started by delivering a small bowl of toasted sesame seeds with a pestle, where you are to crush up the seeds before adding the dark sauce. Thankfully they gave us the “how to” without us having to ask.

We got pork cutlet a few times after this but this was by far the best, and none had that toasted sesame sauce! They also had various dressings to put on the cabbage salad. We walked to the hotel at a few minutes before check-in and they asked us to wait until 2pm on the dot, there were about 3-4 others waiting to check in as well, I found it funny that 5 minutes made that much difference. The rest of the afternoon we did a little catch-up on writing and other computery things and had a simple convenience store dinner.

Castles, Gardens, and Ramen

In the morning we slept in a bit and some pastries for breakfast and walked towards the station to see this giant unique Torii gate.

I really liked this fountain just behind where we were standing to take the above picture. It would alternate between “Kanazawa” and a clock!

Then it was off to the older area of town full of shops, cafes, and traditional buildings.

We stopped at a cafe that doubled as a tableware shop for some honey tea, coffee, and matcha pudding where we could watch a video of how the tableware was made.

Then we walked back to a brewery we had passed before and shared a flight with a side of fries made with beer yeast, yum!

Mr. Wander has said this is turning into a food blog and for this section he might just be right. We decided we were still hungry and went to a market we had heard about on a Japan travel YouTube channel. We found several croquettes including one with curry (usually breaded and deep fried mashed potatoes with other flavors), fried shrimp, mango and apple juice.

Fully fueled we walked to the Kanazawa Castle that is currently undergoing restoration. They had an exhibit in the fully restored storehouse that talked about the history of the castle and about the methods of building. There were 3-D modeled renderings turned into videos explaining how things were joined without fasteners and clear floors to allow you to see the completed joints. I think this was one of my favorite castles for this reason, it was fascinating.

They also showed how the walls were layered with various materials, and how the roof was refinished. I included a few shots of the grounds and moat as well, but many of the paths were closed still for winter.

Nearby was the Kenroku-en garden, where we started seeing more tourists and tour groups, especially near where some of the trees are starting to blossom. There were several ponds, streams, and a waterfall.

Finally we were cold enough we decided to walk back to the hotel and warm up. We found a ramen place with only about 14 chairs and tried both a soy and miso ramen between the two of us. You paid with a vending machine and gave your ticket to the chef including for drinks. We got there right when it opened which was good because a line had started by the time we left.

Kyoto

After chatting with family in the morning we took a later train finding some breakfast at the station. The train was direct to Kyoto and we found ourselves arriving a few hours before we were allowed to check in. We found another pork cutlet restaurant in the food mall under the station and then started the long walk to the hotel. We took breaks along the river but it was starting to rain, so we found a cafe to enjoy a hot cup of coffee and tea and wait until the 3pm checkin. It was part of a hostel and was super cute.

When we checked in they had us chose 1 bath powder per person per day, so I had to pick one of each type (and one extra one since there were 5). One thing about Japan is every hotel had a bathtub, it’s common to take baths at the end of the day and on some of the cold and rainy days like this one it was quite a lovely way to warmup! They had nice scents too like yuzu or lemon.

Temples among the Tourists

The following morning we headed out in search of several temples and found this tiny bridge along the way.

As we were walking we saw this giant seated Buddha so we decided to wander in and check it out.

They had many smaller exhibits as well, including this sphere where you are to walk in a circle 3 times while touching the stone and making your wish. They had a hallway with a Buddha for each zodiac sign, and a memorial to those that had passed in World War II. They had soil from other international cemeteries, and a file cabinet full of names for soldiers from other countries who passed on Japanese soil.

To be honest, some of the pictures from other temples in the gallery above I don’t know much about, but I thought the pictures were nice enough to include. Feeling peckish we found the walking street and stopped for snacks. A cute cafe had its own little courtyard and we found several croquettes, matcha ice cream, and candied apples.

The apples were covered in a thin hard sugar coating and dusted with flavoring which sticks to the candy before it hardens, our favorite was cinnamon but a yogurt white chocolate was also tasty. It tasted so good we forgot to take a picture until the one we got the following day. I never knew I liked candied apples so much! Part of it was the apple itself was very juicy and the candy coating was thin with a satisfying crunch.

The crowd was pretty thick through the walking streets all the way up to the Kyomizo-dera temple, which is known for its picturesque views of the city and the pagoda. So many were dressed in traditional clothing and there was at least one professional photographer taking photos of a couple.

They had a temporary art fair that was to begin in a few days, and I assume both this astronaut kitty and the doll above is part of this, either way this kitty is pretty cute.

Having enough of the masses of tourists we made our way back to the hotel. For dinner we found a nearby gyoza restaurant and were able to put on our name on the list outside to get in right as they opened. They had a simple menu with a few sides you could get along with the gyoza, we had potato salad, boiled bean sprouts with a minced miso pork, and the best was this ginger chicken soup. They had two flavors of pork Gyoza, garlic & leek and ginger, we got a set of each and split them both. Still feeling hungry we decided to order another round of Gyoza, they were so good! While we waited we could watch them cook and fill more of the dumplings, he worked so quickly.

Relaxing around Kyoto

Enjoying that we could spend more than two nights in the same bed since arriving in Japan, we slept in and ventured out for lunch around noon. We found a place called the “unnamed ramen restaurant”. It was difficult to find and maybe impossible without google images telling me what to look for, I wouldn’t have descended these steps trying to find a ramen restaurant!

We ordered at a vending machine and got to watch as they prepared the pork with a blow torch and assemble the bowls while we waited. The whole place maybe held 12 along this cement bar, and it was pretty delicious, very flavorful broth and the pork was the best part.

Our goal was to get some steps and maybe explore the imperial palace. This was the home of the emperor and his family until 1868 when it was moved to Tokyo. Once we found the entrance we wandered around a bit and read about the various buildings. Mr. Wander sometimes having to crouch as several doorways were very small. One plaque told about the courtiers playing a foot-ball game from China, which sounded very much like hackysack!

Taking advantage of the subway to reach a covered walking street for dinner at Star Restaurant. After eating there we figured this was the Perkins of Japan, so not the highest on my list. The reason we picked it was to find omurice, the rice omelette covered in a gravy, but unfortunately it wasn’t the best. The curry version I had was considerably better than the demi-glaze Mr. Wander tried, his was not very flavorful. Oh well, can’t ALWAYS find the best food. To perk up our taste buds we found another candy apple place nearby and brought it back to the hotel for a late night snack.

Japan in Four Parts

We spent 3 weeks total in Japan, but I’m sure you’ve noticed we have packed quite a bit in, and given my last post was the longest yet, it seems a good choice to have broken it into four segments instead of three. It’s funny how thinking back to my first few posts I thought I was long winded, I had to check my “words written per trip day” to find out I really was not. For those that know me well and are wondering, yes, I made a graph…several in fact. Let me know if you are curious on this or any other metrics such as costs per country or steps per day and maybe we’ll do a “by the numbers” post from the first several months of travel. Until next time, Sayonara!