Kanazawa: 03.23.2018 – Day 6

Good Morning EVERYONE!!

David and I are in Kanazawa, up bright and early at 6:00AM! (This was sleeping in compared to the past couple days.) Another normal morning, got up, went to get the Hotel breakfast:

Fun note about the hotel breakfast, they had Grilled Sardines!

We didn’t try them, but thought it would be a good add on to show the kinds of food we have been seeing in these buffets.

Side bar: David ordered an omelette. He said it had more eggs in it then the Odaiba hotel in Tokyo. He thought this was interesting because it seemed to be more European style.

Typically every breakfast we have had in Japan has consisted of white rice. Fun fact about the Kanazawa rice, it was sweeter. We were told by Chie (our tour guide in Tokyo) that rice is very different in the each of the regions of Japan. This rice was sweet and very good. David and I gave it a 4 Star in comparison to Tokyo.

After breakfast, we got ready for the day and waited out the rain in the room for a little. Our weather app identified that the rain should stop around noon and we wouldn’t have rain for the rest of the week. Not carrying an umbrella around with us would just be one less thing to worry about.

Once the rain stopped, we headed to “old town” – Higashichaya by foot. This was about a 30 minute walk. It had great views of the town and mountains, very narrow roads though. During the walk, we went over the Asano river. This bridge had beautiful views of the river with the mountains in the back.

Once we arrived at the “old town”, we found a Tatami Seating restaurant called Kureha. This was the first restaurant on our trip where we had floor seating. We took off our shoes and ate on the floor; it was fun.

We ordered:
Noodle with Rice Cake
Green tea powder and boiled adzuki bean sandwich
Asahi

After lunch, we went to a nearby Sake Bar where we had our first Sake tasting:

Spring Sake Junmai Daigunjo
Kagatobi Junmai Ginjo Arabashisi
Fukumasamune Junmai Daiginjo Kanazawa

The Sakura Sake was our favorite. Let’s just say, we walked away with plenty to bring home!

During the tasting, we started talking to the bartender who let us know the sake brewery is near by. She identified she was scheduled to work there tomorrow and if we were interested in a tour, to email the brewery to get on the list; we emailed right away.

Then we walked around Old Town and went through a bunch of the shops. One of the interesting shops we found was full of “Gold Flakes”. Lots of dish wear and food sold with the gold flakes on it. Additionally, they had soft ice cream that they put gold flakes on top of like sprinkles. Chie let us know that the Japanese culture considers the gold flakes to be used for good health.

Then we traveled through town toward the town castle and stopped at a couple shops along the way. Once we arrived at the castle, we found out it was closing within the hour. We had decided at this point we would explore the castle tomorrow before the brewery tour.

On our journey back to the hotel, we walked through the Omi-Cho Market which was also closed. The streets were barren, but the smell of fish was still lingering. It was much smellier than the Tokyo Fish Market. Once we arrived at the hotel, we dropped off the Sake we purchased and then went to go get dinner at a Ramen place we had passed earlier in the day.

Shirasagi Ramen
5 Star ramen place, David and I were both blown away with how amazing it was.

-Special (spicy with ground beef)
-Shirasagi Ramen with Rich soy sauce based soup with Pork, chicken breast and thigh, and egg

During dinner, we started talking to the head chef at the Ramen restaurant and had really great conversation with him. He also recommended a Sushi place at the Fish Market in Kanazawa.

By the time we were finished dinner, we were both exhausted. We headed back to the hotel to get some shut eye. This was our latest night out thus far (9:00PM).

Another successful day! Till tomorrow…