Exploring 'Little Kyoto' Kanazawa| Lunch at Omicho markets, Higashi chaya, Summer Festival | Vlog
Hi everyone, this week we’re leaving Tokyo and heading to Gifu prefecture there are actually so many cultural villages and sites in Gifu we’ll be visiting a few of them on this trip first stop will be Kanazawa Kanazawa is considered a ‘little Kyoto’ so I’m excited to see how it compares It’s about a 3 hour shinkansen ride from Tokyo so I’ve prepared with some breakfast and coffee it’s been awhile since I travelled like this in Japan love seeing the countryside views from the train and we’re here I didn’t know but seems like there’s going to be a big festival here first going to drop off my things at the hotel the city centre is more modern than I thought checking in really need another coffee found this cute vintage cafe the cafe was so cosy and the coffee was good too the owner was super friendly and spoke fluent English we’re going to have lunch at the markets here you can find some local produce but the market is most well known for it’s seafood you can walk around and buy fresh seafood at any of these stalls Kanazawa is well known for it’s seafood and everything was so fresh actually never seen purple cauliflower.. everyone was walking around with a croquette so I got one too I got the edamame one I think this wagyu store was the most popular one here they sell grilled A5 wagyu the meat was so fatty and juicy perfect with a bit of wasabi I was still a bit hungry so I got this grilled scallop I was planning on visiting the famous Higashi Chaya district after but it is said to rain a lot today so we’re headed to the Kenroku-en gardens instead it’s meant to be one of Japan's "three most beautiful landscape gardens" luckily it’s free admissions today the name "Kenrokuen" means “garden that combines six characteristics." which are spaciousness, seclusion, artifice, antiquity, water sources and magnificent views first we’ll go to this teahouse on the water the teahouse has a great view right on the water perfect place to escape from the rain while enjoying a cup of matcha it came with a sweet as well it was some kind of red bean and mochi going to do some reading while we wait out the rain now let’s take a stroll around the park the park itself was stunning you can tell how well kept everything is there’s so many sections of the park to enjoy you could spend hours here dropped by the tourist information centre to plan the rest of my trip going to rest in the hotel until dinner we’re trying the special curry from Kanazawa I got the roast katsu curry the curry is definitely a lot richer and bold in taste the curry goes really well with the fried katsu lastly grabbing some dessert for tonight good morning from Kanazawa this morning we’re headed to Higashi chaya district which is the gaisha district in Kanazawa it’s meant to be similar to Kyoto’s Gion the area is lined with these wooden houses many of which are now teahouses, restaurants and gift shows all the shops open around 9-10 I arrived around 8:30 to beat the crowd and I had the whole street mostly to myself along with a couple of morning birds they seem to have made themselves a home on the roofs we’ll come back once all the shops open for now let’s go grab some coffee it just started to rain too there was only one coffee shop open at this hour this cafe was only a few minutes walk away going to try wait out the rain the coffee was excellent the rain died down a little bit so let’s go check out some of the stores there is definitely a lot more people now a lot of the shops were selling souvenirs fun fact: Kanazawa produces 99% of the gold leaf used in Japan which means you can find a lot of gold products here you can also buy edible gold and cosmetics there was a whole shop selling only blotting paper and of course a sake store let’s try some gold ice cream she gave me 2 layers since the first one didn’t stick properly it mostly tasted like vanila ice cream, but you can taste a bit of metal got some on my nails if you’re in the area I also suggest walking over to Asano river here you can see the traditional houses along the water I can definitely see the resemblance to Kyoto time for some lunch there is a sushi omakase place I want to check out it’s a small shop with only about 6 seats they have omakase for only 20-30 usd I came right at opening without a booking but they suggest making a booking in advance but the quality and the price was so worth it the chef was so fast at making the sushi it was hard to keep up I think there was about 26 pieces in total I ended up asking for less rice by the end the uni was the best part ending with the egg roll I came to take a walk and found this little shrine by accident they must also be getting ready for the festival as well the shrine had these wooden charms you can throw in the water and all these old omikujis but I mostly came here to check out this museum it’s most famous for this pool exhibition usually have have people walking underneath but it was closed today, so it just looked like a normal pool I think the pool is definitely the main attraction I wouldn’t say this is a must visit but a good place to kill some time I also had a detour through the samurai village you can visit some of the samurai houses here but a lot of them were already closed by the time I went so I just walked around the area found all these festival stalls on my way back to the hotel think the main festival starts tomorrow but the stalls are open from today glad I got to see a bit of it before I left at the end of the stalls was this shrine seems to be some kind of event going on got this amazing sunset view from the shrine let’s got grab some food there were so many good options not sure what this is but it looked good it was like a okonomiyaki wrapped in a crepe the weather was perfect for sitting outside getting some of these mini castellas for dessert hope you guys enjoyed this tour around Kanazawa see you in the next video :)
2024-07-07 05:06
