Samurai Morning

Waking up in the neighborhood of the samurais of old, I wanted to also start the day just like them. With a nice hot can of coffee from the vending machine across the way (see my coffee breakdown). We grabbed an easy breakfast of jam filled breads from a nearby bakery, and headed for the cultural sites of the neighborhood.

The buildings, walls, and roofs all evoked a tremendous sense of history and awe, and truly felt like one had travelled back in time. We saw a recreation of a samurai household where they actually lived, and of course also saw the small dingy holes in the wall where their servants lived. Unfortunately, the weather, while occassionally letting the sun grace us, was overwhelmingly cold and rainy. This forced us inside, cold, wet, and hungry – all good reasons for a ramen lunch (though let’s face it, who needs reasons). The chain ramen was better than our Tokyo fare in different ways.

Lord Of The Stroll

Rested by the ramen, and going out to see the weather opening up to a nice moderate sun (though still windy as all hell), we were encouraged to go check out the Kenrokuen in the afternoon – the great garden that the lord of Kanazawa setup across from his castle. Possibly the most popular and beautiful city garden in all of Japan, the garden seems sculpted by giants. Huge and sweeping, littered and weaved through with creeks and ponds, hills and waterfalls, breathtaking gardens, and shrines big and small, one can only be happy to live in a world where everyone gets to enjoy it.

Again though, unfortunately, the rain and gale winds whipped our umbrellas back and forth like a poor hip hop child star. We were chased out, with hale smattering us to boot, as we hurried back to the shelter of our AirBnB.

The Cute Dinner

Don’t be misled by the title – we didn’t end up in a cat cafe or a place one would conventionally describe as kawai. Instead, the cuteness came from the situation, and the common threads of humor, as we enjoyed unagi at a nearby diner. Being Sunday, many places were closed, but this unagi shop was open, though only one other patron sitting at the bar. The kind owner and chef sat us, brought me my excellent and budget priced bottle of sake, and set out to prepare our meal.

The cuteness came as we noticed some sort of Japanese reality travel show was playing on the TV, and being watched by both the chef and the other patron. We soon realized that, while not being able to understand any of it, watching a woman get nailed in the boob by a swinging durian is universal. Sharing chuckles alongside locals was a definite highlight of the trip, and made our meal even more memorable. That says a lot, given that the perfectly cooked unagidon, shrimp tempura, and Japanese cucumber cut beautifully for maximal surface area all provided a great memory in and of itself.