The tables are limited so if the tables are occupied, we have to wait. So watch out.

You can use this Italian restaurant in lunch time and dinner time, too. Excluded the hotel charge.

Before breakfast, we asked the hotel clerk how to get to Kenrokuen. And he searched the timetable of the bus for us. I was really glad.

From the bus stop in front of the hotel it takes about 8 minutes. Get off at 兼六園下(Kenrokuen shita)

That is 21st Century Museum of Contemporary Art, Kanazawa.

We went up the slope. The water came from the road on the pavement, too. Not to slip.

Kanazawa Castle (in the morning)

The same place on the day before. But the entrance is around the corner. The gate was closed before opening time from 8 am. There is a ticket center on the left.

You can take a walk in the garden early in the morning for free. From 6am to 7:45.  At 7:45, you have to get out of the garden. Then, if you want to go inside again, you should buy the ticket. 300 yen for adult.
Here is the ticket center.

You can drink and eat in some restaurants in the garden. Outside the garden, we couldn't find a cafe and a restaurant.

After about an hour, it was so cold and we moved to a museum. On the way, we might find a cafe or a restaurant.
But nothing around here. So watch out.

Here is an entrance and exit of 真弓坂口（mayumisaka guchi)

On the right side of the slope and next to the temple, you can find the stairs. Go up the stairs so you can get to Ishikawa Prefectural Museum of Art.

This building is an annex of the museum. It opens from 9am. We asked the lady to come inside but she said at that time there was no exhibition. But she took us to a warm room and served green tea. And we had a chat there.
Thank you very much for her kindness. She saved our cold bodies lol

Here is Ishikawa Prefectural Museum of Art.
If you show ONE DAY TICKET, you can get the discounted charge. (350 yen -> 280 yen : Only 2nd floor) It opens from 9:30.
It is forbidden to take photos. They have coin lockers.
It was warm inside. So you can put your coat in the locker.

1st floor and 2nd floor are different exhibitions.

Here is a sweet shop and cafe that a famous patisserie owns. His name is 辻口博啓（Hironobu Tsujiguchi)
http://www.h-tsujiguchi.jp/profile/index.html

http://www.kagaya.co.jp/le_musee_de_h/contents/kanazawaCafe.html　
It opens from 10 am.  So we had to look the art works in only 30 minutes.

Inside the cafe.

I ordered three pieces of cake and hot cocoa.

These cakes are delicious. They are a little expensive though. One problem in this cafe is that sitting at the table and choosing cake is mixed so we had to wait for a long time.
Actually we would like to drink and eat in the cafe. Before I ordered the cake, it took about 12 minutes. They took us to a table. We ordered drinks. Before serving drinks and cake, it took about 15 minutes.  Checking took about 6 minutes. We lost precious time to visit next museum.
So please watch out.

Next we went to 21Century Museum of Contemporary Art, Kanazawa.
http://www.kanazawa21.jp/ Official Website
It has an English website, too.

First you have to buy tickets. In museum there are two exhibitions divided in half. You can buy tickets for two exhibitions or a ticket for one exhibition.
Don't forget your ONE DAY PASS. This discount is bigger than other museums.
We bought a ticket for one exhibition because we have only about an hour.
(But if you look through, you can see two exhibitions in about an hour. It takes an hour to an hour and a half to look around the two exhibitions.)

There were some art works famous artists made.
I could see art works of 奈良美智（Yoshitomo Nara), 村上隆（Takashi Murakami) and Francisco Jose de Goya.

Do not forget to go to the toilet inside the museum.
If you do, you will find why I recommend you to do that.

In the end of the exhibitions,  you can go downstairs.
You walk through a corridor then...

You can see a blue light in front of you.

I recommend you to see this in your eyes. This is amazing. Underwater world.

 We left the museum and walked to Oumicho fisher's market.

On the way, there was a food festival in a big park near the museum. There were a lot of regional food around Japan.
But we would like to eat something related with Kanazawa.
We tried to look for something interesting but nothing...

It took about 15 minutes walk from the museum to the fisher's market.  It is located near the hotel, too.
There are roofs in the market but it was cold here.

We walked around and chose this sushi restaurant.

Another Japanese arts.（food samples)

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We went to a restaurantcalled "秋月" we reserved with hotels. We made an appointment in a tourist company. The course includes round-trip train tickets, one night stayat a  hotel and this dinner. It costs about 34,000 yen, I guess. I think it's not bad.
http://www.h6.dion.ne.jp/~syugetsu/　Here is the website.
No English version.

Inside, there are tables and chairs in a kind of personal room.

This is the main dish. (Boiled crab)

 This blue tag showed where the crab was caught. This tag said it wasfrom 輪島(Wajima). When you go to a fish market in Kanazawa, you can seesome crabs with these tags. There are some colors. It means they werecaught in different ports.

 When I firstly had a bite, I found the taste was not strong. So Ipicked out all the crabmeat and mixed with Kanimiso(crab livers) whichtastes strong and creamy.

These were the shells of the crab. It took about 40 minutes to pick up the crabmeat... It was hard.
 

We would like to go to Kenrokuen with a special light-up.
So we emailed to Shugetsu to change the starting time and serve the dishes earlier. They completed our favors without any complaints.  And later, I found that I forgot my knit cap in here. I was thinking to go back here at midnight, in the morning of the next day, or I gave up. When we came back the hotels, my cap was sent in the front desk.
Amazing... (Actually there is a pick-up bus between the hotel and the restaurant. So they found I'd left it so they asked the bus driver to send me. Later I emailed to the restaurant for my appreciation.)

We asked the restaurant to call a taxi. (I already asked them by email.) Soon a taxi came and we headed for Kenrokuen(兼六園). It had special light-ups during this term.
We can enter the garden for free, too.

The taxi driver put us in front of the main gate. Then I could see a beautiful castle called "金沢城 : Kanazawa jou".
It has been now being under restoration.

We have to walk in the entrance about 5 minutes.

Then, we could see this!!

There were so many people about 150 to 200. It was freezing cold there.

As you can see the ropes from the tops of the trees.
It is called ”雪吊り:Yukitsuri" snow-hanging??
The snow in this area includes water so it is heavy.
The heavy snow damaged the branches of the trees badly. About 150 to 200 ropes are used on one tree.

Hotel Resol Trinity Kanazawa in the morning from the nearest bus stop.
http://www.trinity-kanazawa.com/  Japanese version
http://www.resol-hotel.jp/resol/en/ English version
They have Korean and two Chinese websites, too.

I don't want to recommend this hotels. Because here is excellent. If I recommended, I would not stay next time...
The hotel employees were really well-trained but not manual typed. I could feel their professionals.

This is the lobby. This hotel is very reasonable. Two bus stops from Kanazawa Station. You can get the buses from Bus Stop No.3 to 6 and get off at Musashi-gatsuji（武蔵ヶ辻）. From the bus stop, it takes two minutes on foot.

We didn't know why but the room was upgraded. On the 9th floor. The top floor of the hotel. We can't get on 8th and 9th floors without a room key card.

Open the door... Omg...

For western people it is small but for us it's a cozy room we can relax. Compared with standard rooms in other hotels, this room is more spacious.

There is no big bath in this hotel but there is a big bathtub in the room. It was really great to relax. There is a big humidifier with an air purifier, too.

The view from the room(on the next morning)

At 10 pm. I would like to drink coffee. There is Starbucks near the hotel but it closes at 10pm. So I took a walk to Kanazawa Station. It was a little long way than I expected.
It took about 18 to 20 minuets walk.

I went to Starbucks near the station. Almost all the chairs were occupied. There are night buses from Kanazawa to everywhere. So there were many young people there.
I got a chair and after 30 minutes, the shop clerk told me it was the closing time.... Omg...  When I heard it, I suddenly said "ehh" by myself. I thought Kanazawa is a big city so it opens at 12pm but it closes at 11pm...

So I had to walk a long way again to go back to the hotel.
There is a convenience store near the hotel, too.
It is a nice location.

I had a nice sleep...but it didn't...

My friend told me that he changed the plan again!! and he suddenly said he wanted to go to another museum.
I got a temper so after taking a bath, at midnight I re-planned again and did a simulation in my mind.
Because we had to take the train at 2pm to go back to Shin-yokohama. I had already planned the exact time...
(What a f...!!) So I went down by the elevator and use the free PC near the lobby to calculate time schedule.

My friend already slept. I went to bed at one...

We planned to take the train to Tojinbou.
Take the train for 三国港 : Mikuni kou.
This train station is hidden behind the bus ticket center.
Please walk clockwise of the center.

We can buy one-day ticket with 800 yen only in the weekends. You can buy the ticket center in the station of Echizen Railway. Some stations don't have station staffs.

 You can get on and off at every station on the map in a day. Do not throw this away.

In this station, a dinosaur is sitting on the bench.
First, I thought someone(a human) was sitting here.
There was an ad behind the dinosaur. Then I found out why it was here. In Fukui there was a dinosaur museum.
That's why it was also a kind of ad.

We took this train. On the back ground there was a hotel we stayed. Only 3-4 minutes walk from Fukui Station.

Inside the train. The train is one car(carriage).
In some stations, entrance and exit are limited.
Some people taking the train from self-service stations have to pay inside the trains.

It was a different world compared with Kanto area.

There was a big river called "九頭竜川 : Kuzuryu gawa"

I think there was a big rice field around here.

This is the terminal station called "三国港(Mikunikou)"
When you get to Tojinbou, there are two ways to go.
You can get off at "三国駅(Mikuni Sta.)" or "三国港”.
If you get off at 三国駅, the lady in the information center said the bus stop is in front of the station.
If you get off at 三国港, you have to walk in two minutes.
There is no place to prevent the cold wind...

I There is a small hut in the station. You can use it to prevent the cold wind.  After you walk in the right side path next to the hut, you can cross the railway.

Here is the bus stop called "三国港"
The fare of the bus is 270 yen from 三国駅 and is 190 yen from 三国港. Which do you prefer, waiting for the bus in cold wind or I guess, you don't need to wait for the bus in cold wind in Mikuni Sta.( I've never been to Mikuni Sta. So I can't tell you exactly. Sorry.)

Be careful. The bus is fewer. Once an hour.
I think you can catch taxis from 三国駅 but it is hard to catch in 三国港.

I made a plan with the best connection between the train and the bus but we have to wait in 15 minutes.  It was really cold.

Behind the bus stop, you can see 日本海(Nihonkai : the Sea of Japan)

Under construction about Tojinbou

It was freezing cold there so I would like to go to the bathroom. So I went to a restaurant and ordered ice cream(We call this kind of ice cream "soft cream" which is Japanese English) Then I could use the toilet.

This one is a special ice cream. Ikasumi soft cream.
Ikasumi (squid ink)  イカスミソフトクリーム
イカ＝squid  スミ＝ink

Here is Tojinbou（東尋坊）

In winter season, we can't get on a ferry for sightseeing.
Because of the heavy wind and waves.

Tojinbou is famous for the stiff cliffs. It is a rare shape in Japan and also in the world.

It was not a sunny day but sometimes we could see the sunlight from the clouds. It was beautiful.

This place was famous for committing a suicide.
Some dramas were used here. But these days it was not used for this. Because some people really tried it.
It is said that there is a phone booth to prevent people from trying a suicide.

From Wikipediea, there was a naughty monk in old times.
His name is Tojinbou. Other monks were annoyed by him very much. One day he fell in love with a beautiful princess. Another monk called "Kakunen Magara" also loved her. They quarreled with each other about her. One day monks in a temple went on a trip here. They drank too much. Then, Tojinbou fell asleep.  So Magara and other monks pull Tojinbou down from the cliffs.  It is said that it was April 5th, 1182 so around April 5th, the weather goes worse every year.

If I took one more step, I would fall down...

After Tojinbou, we had lunch. There are some restaurants and souvenir shops around here like a street.
I ordered this. It costs about 1280 yen... This one is a small size. Taste so-so for me. 

My friend suddenly suggested me to walk from Tojinbou to the nearest station. But it was very cold and snow left.
I didn't walk but he insisted to go... What a f....!!
I had to walk in 30 minutes.... I made a plan by myself.
It was perfect but he destroyed it.... What a f...!!!!
(Sorry for my curse words... I've never used the word to anyone... But this time I said it in my mind...)

Going back to Fukui Station. Take Thunderbird(サンダーバード） to Kanazawa, Ishikawa Prefecture.  Before getting on the train, we went to a souvenir shop in front of Fukui station, actually in front of "Seven Eleven" around the corner.
You can buy some good souvenirs about Fukui in the shop.

This price included a reserved seat. It takes one hour from Fukui to Kanazawa.

Got off at Kanazawa.

Kanazawa Station was huge and very crowded.

You can see some tourists here. After passing the gates, turn right and walk about 30 seconds. Inside the station, on the left, there was a tourist information center. 

Here they have a booth for English speakers.

The bus information. It was hard for Japanese to understand it, too.

In front of the station. Huge bus stops. There were some lines each stop. I didn't know which bus I had to take.

You don't have to use a umbrella here.

There were some tall hotels around Kanazawa.

If you want to buy One Day Ticket, you should walk clockwise around the bus stops. Then you can see Starbucks on your left and next to it, there was an entrance of a mall. Then, around the corner of the next block, there was a bus ticket office of Hokuriku Railway(北立鉄道)

You can also ask which buses you should take here.
They are professional so if you ask them, they can answer quickly. ( I tried to search a lot on the web but I couldn't get well... The buses in Kanazawa are very complicated.)

You can buy some tickets during the working hours.
If you buy "Loop Bus One Day Pass", the ticket has some privileges for some art museums. It is not written on the card and in the art museums. In some museums, please show your ticket before you buy a ticket.

Please check this URL.
http://www.hokutetsu.co.jp/joshaken/kanko/shuyu.html
Here is a list of museums you can get a discount.

Before you buy a ticket in a museum, you should show the Loop Bus One Day Pass.

On this trip, I could use it in Shima, Ishikawa Prefectual Museum of Art, 21st Century of Contemporary Art, Kanazawa.

From a taxi, the front of Kanazawa station.

We went to Fukumitsuya(Sake maker and shop)

About two weeks ago, we made an appointment to observe and taste Sake shop. There are two courses, A and B. On the weekends, we can only take B course.

We only see a few places outside the sake factory. But you can taste sake for free. It took about 30 minutes.
We were going through the path next to the shop.

The signboard says that from ancient times there is a traditional custom to hang the cube shaped ball called "Sakabayashi" which was made from leaves of cedar trees, in front of the sake shop.
This is a symbol of beautiful(delicious) sake to make Sakabayashi in the shape of a cedar tree which is a holy tree of God of Sake.

Here is a sake factory of Hukumitsuya.

There is a well. Sake in Hukumitsuya is made from this water. Most of places in Japan underground water is a soft water. But here is rare. The water is a little bit hard water.

Everyone can drink this water. The signboard says "When you pick up the water, please ask a shop clerk."

I strongly recommend you to take an empty pet bottle with you.

In B course, we couldn't watch inside the factory.
First 10 minutes watching the movie about a Sake History of Hukumitsuya. And next 5 minutes we see the well.
And then tasting time.

There are water of the well in the white paper cups to purify your tongue after tasting. They served us some tasting food.  You can buy them in here.

We could taste four kinds of sake on that day. The bottle with a red label is the only sake you can buy in this shop.
There are some shops in Tokyo. You can use Online shop.

http://www.fukumitsuya.co.jp/　Official Website
http://www.fukumitsuya.com/   Online shop

In old times there were expensive restaurants for rich people around here. Now it seemed the old ones and the new ones.

Here is the back alley.

The view from the bridge.

Next, we moved to ひがし茶屋街（Higashi chayagai)

This is a soy-sauce shop. ヤマト醤油(Yamato Shouyu)

You can eat soy-sauce flavored ice(soft) cream.
I strongly recommend you to eat this. It was not so strong flavor but the taste was a little deep body of soy-sauce.
This was the first experience.

You can buy some kinds of soy-sauce here.

When I came into the shop, it was almost closing time.
A young shop woman was very kind and talked.

Walk in a few minutes. There was a signboard.
Turn left to Higashi Geisha District.(ひがし茶屋街）
On this corner there is a barber.

Kind of a different world. Turn right and then...

Time warp!!　It looks like Gion in Kyoto.

This house is a National important cultural property.

It was built in 1820. At that time, rich people enjoyed Geisha plays on the second floor.

The ceiling of the 1st floor is low and one on the 2nd is taller compared with normal houses. It was made especially for Geisha plays. Here is one of the most important property in Japan.

You can enter this house. The fare is 400 yen. If you have some brochures or Saison International card or something, you can discount 50 yen. (350 yen)

You have to take off your shoes and also put your belongings to a coin locker for free(but you need 100 yen coin) to prevent the damages. You can take photos by only a small camera. iPhone was permitted. My iPad was not permitted. So I couldn't take any photos at all.

One caution : The employees are not well-trained and we felt snobbish.

A man in a ticket window was very weird. He chucked us the tickets after paying without saying "Thank you" as normal Japanese say.

There was a middle aged man explaining about the rooms for free. He looked a gentleman but his saying was a kind of looking-down-on us.

I guess he would like to explain that this house is a special place and at that time ordinary people was not able to come inside the house. But when he explained it, he emphasized it too much so it sounds arrogant and snobbish.  If you feel so, we as a Japanese apologize to you instead of them.

But I strongly recommend you to go inside the house.
You should take a small camera with you.

This is a map of Higashi Geisha District.

Around 6 pm.  It was getting dark.
There are some restaurants, cafe and souvenir shops.

I went to Fukui and Kanazawa with my friend from Feb.9th to 11th.
  

Here is Shi-Yokohama Station.

We have two tickets to get on Shinkansen(the Bullet Train)
Please insert both tickets together to the gate machine.   

Here is Nagoya Station from the window.
It was a really sunny day here. But....

Another world...

Change trains at Maibara（米原）in Shiga Prefecture.
Take Shirasagi(しらさぎ）to Fukui.

I was very surprised to see so many people standing in line to go through the gates... First I didn't know why this happened. After passing through I found that, if we pass through the gates, we have to insert the Shinkansen tickets and the next train's tickets together.
This was the first experience to insert three tickets to the gate machine. (The crew staffs was telling us that we can insert at max. 4 tickets here. More than 4 tickets you should ask the station crews.)

Going through the crowds, finally I found the way to go...
It was a bit tight connection so I was worrying about we could pass through the crowds...   

This is the right direction for Fukui.(福井）

This is Shirasagi Train.

Inside the train it looks like Shinkansen. I couldn't take a picture but there is a pedal with a corridor-side chair.
If you use this, you can change the direction of a set of chairs(two chairs).

Outside, it was a stormy snow...

Calmer than a previous photo. But it was a still snow world.

Arrived at Fukui Station
It took about two hours from Shin-Yokohama to Maibara.
and about one hour from Maibara to Fukui.

Going down the stairs and there is an exit.

Just right next to the gates, there is a tourist information center. I'm not sure there is an English speaking people or not. But a Japanese lady was a specialist and she gave us a lot of good information.

In front of Fukui Station, there are few tall buildings.
There are few people here, too. I saw some people(about 50 people) inside the station.

Later, I could guess why there are not tall buildings here.

We were going to Eiheiji(永平寺). Thanks to the lady in the information center, we changed the plan to go to Eiheiji.
First, I planned to go there by train. But she advised us to go there by bus. It is only 30 minutes from the station by bus. Inside the building, there is a ticket vending machine.

In the back of the station, there is a ticket vending machine and on the right of the picture, there are bus stops. It was hard to find in a sight.

One way trip to Eiheiji costs 720 yen.  You can't buy a return-ticket here. You should buy the ticket on the destination again.

This is the ticket. It is activated only when you buy it.

Timetable on the bus.  If you want to go there earlier, you have to take the train.

The bus to Eiheiji.  Please hand the ticket to a bus conductor before boarding. This bus goes in front of Eiheiji. That was great.

I forgot the name of the Yakitori restaurant.

This was my first experience to eat this kind of yakitori restaurant.  In here we have to order 5 sets of yakitori.
So people living here ordered like "Shiro 10 pon"
It was unbelievable in Tokyo and Yokohama.

Another question was this.
They served yakitori on the bar like this in front of us.
We would like to eat hot yakitori and we were hungry so
we ate one after another.

Then I watched around and people living around here didn't eat in a hustle at all.  Then I found that the bar was warmed so yakitori didn't become cold.  Hmm, different culture in Fukui.

In the front desk, we asked the good restaurant we could eat fresh fish. Then, 2nd dinner.

Sashimi of Baigai (ばい貝の刺身 : Baigai no Sashimi)(a kind of seashell)

Sashimi of Sazae （サザエの刺身 : Sazae no Sashimi)
(a kind of seashell)  Texture and the flavor of the sea are nice.

Sashimi of raw octopus (タコの刺身 : Tako no Sashimi）

We ordered a lot and drank some good sake here.

To be continued....