Hakone and then Kanazawa
On Tuesday morning we took the tour bus and visited Hamamatsuya, a workshop that specializes in inlaid designed woodworks. All their elaborate designs are made with different colored woods glues together. No paints of any kind are used. When the complex designs are done, they often plane off thin layers and use them to glue on top of plain wood boxes or as wall hangings. It takes a minimum of two months to complete one design. The man in this picture is the 6th generation in his family to be such an artisan.
After the wood shop experience, the bus took us to the train station in Shinkansen where we caught a bullet train to Nagoya. This train took just an hour and 9 minutes as it reached up to speeds of 220 mph. Then, we had a 31 minute connection in Nagoya, before we caught an express train to Kanazawa. I had a moment of excitement in Nagoya when I got on the train and (finally) remembered my bag which I had left in the station! Fortunately another man in our group realized my error and brought my bag with him! Catastrophe was avoided!
We finally made it to Kanazawa right about 5PM after all afternoon in transit. We checked into our hotel, New Grand Hotel. This hotel leaves a bit to be desired. The mattresses are hard but yet you can count the coil springs. The bathroom doors swing out and completely block the hall, the wifi speed is way too slow to stream and the room thermostat doesn't appear to work. As for the thermostat, at least the room seems to be permanently set at a temperature about 70F!
I guess Kanazawa was not going to be kind to me that day as in addition to a sub par hotel, our first dinner there was at an Italian restaurant which was also not to my liking. As most of you may know, I do not like onions. Well here, the salad was approximately 25% raw onions, the spaghetti was very bland (I guess that is because there was no onions in it) and the chicken entree sat on a large bed of caramelized onions! To accompany this onslaught of onions, this restaurant was extremely noisy as I could barely even hear the person beside me. All in all, by far the worst meal on the tour!
Wednesday morning had us going to the Kenrokuen Gardens right after breakfast. These gardens were originally the private property of the shogun. The original garden dates back to the early 17th century. But these gardens burnt down in a great fire of 1759. Of course, the gardens were replanted shortly thereafter. Still, it was only after the Emperor took over, that these gardens became public in 1874. The shogun castle here was built to last as can be seen by the picture below.
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Unfortunately, just as we entered the gardens, the skies open and it poured rain. We ran through some of the gardens as we escaped into the new visitor center. We rose out the storm here. But by then, it was time to go to the 300 year old public market.
Here in Omicho Market, we broke into small groups who each had to but one product which we were only told the name of in Japanese. Fortunately, one person in my group pronounced the words well enough and we bought the ‘pickled cucumber’ at the first merchant’s stand where we stopped. After the little buying game and our looking about this market, we were off to the Gold Leaf Museum.
Almost all the gold leaf in Japan is make in Kanazawa . In fact, there are two gold leaf museums here! The one we visited was built by Yasue Komel who spent his life collecting tools used in the production of gold leaf. Mr. Komel donated the museum and its contents to the city in 1985. Since that time, the city has expanded and moved the operation into a new building. Our visit was lead by the museum director. He shows us a video on the various stages of making gold leaf. Then he gave us a tour through the museum showing us the tools used and the actual gold leaf from the various stages.
After the Gold Leaf Museum, we had a nice salmon lunch. Then it was onto to a geisha house! Here the owner, dressed as a geisha, gave us a very nice tour of her place. It seems all geisha entertainment now is strictly pg rated. In fact, many wives attend the performances with their husbands. The owner told us, all the performances are 90 minutes long. And there is only one performance per night. However no geisha girls work directly for her. The geisha girls she uses are independent contractors who she hires - usually by name request from the client. The oldest geisha girl in Kanazawa is 83!
The final stop of the day was at the Los Angeles Cafe. Here, we had tea and a muffin as we listened to the owner, Mikey, tell us how the earthquake in Fukushima affected his life. In summary, despite government assurances of safety, he moved his family to Kanazawa to avoid the radiation from the destroyed nuclear power plant. It seemed among other things, the government changed what is considered safe from 1 unit of radiation to 20 units to avoid large relocations of people. BTW, Mickey now heads up an organization to help victims.
Dinner was on our own tonight. I went with 3 other group members and had curry udon soup with tempura veggies. It was great! The single best dish I have had in Japan!
On Thursday, August 24th, I took the optional tour with 9 others to Shirakawago. We had another tour bus who drove up in the mountains for 90 minutes to the gas shop-style house village of Ainokura. This village is a UNESCO World Heritage Site. The gassho roof of the houses here have a slope of about 60 degrees which forms almost a equilateral triangle with the rest of the houses. The sleep roofs allow snow to fall off of it easily. The enormous roofs are supported by stout oak beams which are curved at the base. The roof frame is held together with rope and twisted hazel boughs. No nails are used in these 100 to 200 year old houses!
Later on we when inside the largest gassho house. It has 5 levels where the first two were for living and the top 3 were for silkworms. In earlier years, this region industries were mining, silkworms, gunpowder and paper making.
Next stop was at the community center at Washi no Sato where our tour group took part in the making of mochitsuki (rice cake making). Starting with boiled sticky rice, we pounded it into submission. Finally, the ladies mixed it with a salty sweet sauce made mainly with soybean or a sweet mixture made of sugar and read beans. Of course, we then had to sample what we made!
After the rice cakes, we headed up to Gokayama Washi to try our hands at paper making. Hand made paper has a long history here as there is evidence of it existence over 1,200 years ago. This special paper is made from a mixture of mulberry fibers and various extract of the hollyhock plant. This mixture gives the paper its distinct appearance and its highly prized durability. Our paper making involved dipping the frames for three postcards in the paper solution to start the process. Then people, who unless us and know what they were doing, dried the postcards and finished the process. All in all, it was a fun and learning experience.
We had a big vegetarian lunch at a local restaurant and then stopped at village of Shirakawago on the way back to the hotel. This was a village ‘discovered’ by people from the west some 30+ years ago. Surprisingly, it is a popular tourist site for mainly the Japanese tourist!
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After the wood shop experience, the bus took us to the train station in Shinkansen where we caught a bullet train to Nagoya. This train took just an hour and 9 minutes as it reached up to speeds of 220 mph. Then, we had a 31 minute connection in Nagoya, before we caught an express train to Kanazawa. I had a moment of excitement in Nagoya when I got on the train and (finally) remembered my bag which I had left in the station! Fortunately another man in our group realized my error and brought my bag with him! Catastrophe was avoided!
I guess Kanazawa was not going to be kind to me that day as in addition to a sub par hotel, our first dinner there was at an Italian restaurant which was also not to my liking. As most of you may know, I do not like onions. Well here, the salad was approximately 25% raw onions, the spaghetti was very bland (I guess that is because there was no onions in it) and the chicken entree sat on a large bed of caramelized onions! To accompany this onslaught of onions, this restaurant was extremely noisy as I could barely even hear the person beside me. All in all, by far the worst meal on the tour!
Wednesday morning had us going to the Kenrokuen Gardens right after breakfast. These gardens were originally the private property of the shogun. The original garden dates back to the early 17th century. But these gardens burnt down in a great fire of 1759. Of course, the gardens were replanted shortly thereafter. Still, it was only after the Emperor took over, that these gardens became public in 1874. The shogun castle here was built to last as can be seen by the picture below.
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Here in Omicho Market, we broke into small groups who each had to but one product which we were only told the name of in Japanese. Fortunately, one person in my group pronounced the words well enough and we bought the ‘pickled cucumber’ at the first merchant’s stand where we stopped. After the little buying game and our looking about this market, we were off to the Gold Leaf Museum.
Almost all the gold leaf in Japan is make in Kanazawa . In fact, there are two gold leaf museums here! The one we visited was built by Yasue Komel who spent his life collecting tools used in the production of gold leaf. Mr. Komel donated the museum and its contents to the city in 1985. Since that time, the city has expanded and moved the operation into a new building. Our visit was lead by the museum director. He shows us a video on the various stages of making gold leaf. Then he gave us a tour through the museum showing us the tools used and the actual gold leaf from the various stages.
After the Gold Leaf Museum, we had a nice salmon lunch. Then it was onto to a geisha house! Here the owner, dressed as a geisha, gave us a very nice tour of her place. It seems all geisha entertainment now is strictly pg rated. In fact, many wives attend the performances with their husbands. The owner told us, all the performances are 90 minutes long. And there is only one performance per night. However no geisha girls work directly for her. The geisha girls she uses are independent contractors who she hires - usually by name request from the client. The oldest geisha girl in Kanazawa is 83!
The final stop of the day was at the Los Angeles Cafe. Here, we had tea and a muffin as we listened to the owner, Mikey, tell us how the earthquake in Fukushima affected his life. In summary, despite government assurances of safety, he moved his family to Kanazawa to avoid the radiation from the destroyed nuclear power plant. It seemed among other things, the government changed what is considered safe from 1 unit of radiation to 20 units to avoid large relocations of people. BTW, Mickey now heads up an organization to help victims.
Dinner was on our own tonight. I went with 3 other group members and had curry udon soup with tempura veggies. It was great! The single best dish I have had in Japan!
On Thursday, August 24th, I took the optional tour with 9 others to Shirakawago. We had another tour bus who drove up in the mountains for 90 minutes to the gas shop-style house village of Ainokura. This village is a UNESCO World Heritage Site. The gassho roof of the houses here have a slope of about 60 degrees which forms almost a equilateral triangle with the rest of the houses. The sleep roofs allow snow to fall off of it easily. The enormous roofs are supported by stout oak beams which are curved at the base. The roof frame is held together with rope and twisted hazel boughs. No nails are used in these 100 to 200 year old houses!
Later on we when inside the largest gassho house. It has 5 levels where the first two were for living and the top 3 were for silkworms. In earlier years, this region industries were mining, silkworms, gunpowder and paper making.
After the rice cakes, we headed up to Gokayama Washi to try our hands at paper making. Hand made paper has a long history here as there is evidence of it existence over 1,200 years ago. This special paper is made from a mixture of mulberry fibers and various extract of the hollyhock plant. This mixture gives the paper its distinct appearance and its highly prized durability. Our paper making involved dipping the frames for three postcards in the paper solution to start the process. Then people, who unless us and know what they were doing, dried the postcards and finished the process. All in all, it was a fun and learning experience.
We had a big vegetarian lunch at a local restaurant and then stopped at village of Shirakawago on the way back to the hotel. This was a village ‘discovered’ by people from the west some 30+ years ago. Surprisingly, it is a popular tourist site for mainly the Japanese tourist!
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