Exploring one of Japan’s Least Visited Cities - Kanazawa 🇯🇵

good morning everyone today I am in kanazawa which is an ishika prefecture and I am going to be doing one day of sightseeing I'm going to go to all the best spots because this town is known for its like ETO preserved atmosphere so they have the castle they have a beautiful Japanese garden as well as like Samurai District today we're starting in higashi Chaya which as you can see are these beautiful wooden like buildings because this used to be a gisha district and you might be thinking isn't that kyotto well it's similar to it cuz it's even got the name little kyotto so I'm going to start my day here here it's very bright and early there's no one else around so I've got the place to [Music] myself kazawa has three main districts for tea house areas and this is the biggest one so higashi means East and CH means tea houses so if you do come here and you want to see a gisha performance you actually can they have special wooden CH buildings where you can see the gisha perform nowadays this area although it's not really an Entertainment District anymore cuz that's Edo period of time it is popular for it street food and every shop kind of opens around 10:00 a.m. and there's going to be so many people packing into this area cuz last time I came here I literally couldn't walk down the street without about 100 other people and Kaza is the biggest producer of Gold Leaf in the entire country it is literally everywhere you can find gold leaf takoyaki ice cream meat everything you can think of they put some gold leaf on it and I'm definitely Keen to have some sort of gold leaf my first street food I went with a gold ice cream there little flakes of gold on here let's give it a go I can taste like the flavor of the vanilla ice cream and I feel like I can taste the gold I can't tell if it has a flavor and I don't even know what flavor the ice cream is there's like an orange or pink orange flavor at the back but it's definitely vanilla at the front and it's melting so fast oh my goodness if you're wondering how much this cost with the gold it was 700 Yen and without it was about 500 so they're definitely charging you for the gold but is worth it cuz I'm only going to be here like once or twice so definitely give it a go and I'm going to look for a bit more gold food but I'll finish this in the meantime this shop behind me is called Sakura and they're one of the main Gold Leaf producers here in Kazaa I'm going to do a bit of shopping inside there they also have a gold toilet bathroom so something to look forward to you can find any kind of souvenir here covered in Gold but I loved using this gold themed bathroom I'm thinking to get myself a souvenir so get the edible Gold Leaf because when I make a hot drink at home I can put it in so even though it's a bit expensive yellow right here behind me is the main Town District of the Hig CH area honestly just a moment ago there was literally nobody here but then a group of Japanese school kids arrived but honestly people are moving fast so probably empty out again parallel from higos CH district is asano River and it's a very beautiful calm area and I recommend checking it out reminds me of Kamala in kilor there's just something about this city that makes you want to stay here longer the locals are so nice as well Kaza actually has one of the biggest Cafe cultures in the country in my opinion anyway and I found a really cute machia style Cafe right next to hias Chaya and it's themed on like cats black cats it's called Cafe kurono and it is adorable there's like this to Tami room where you've got like a Japanese garden and angala they have beautiful couches you can sit on and the atmosphere is my kind of vibe but Tokyo doesn't have a lot of these so I am super happy to be here and even the water I was served with had this cute little cat cup literally on the first page there's this cat omelette which I have to get as well as matcha latte and I'm big much a fan it also has a cat face on it so I'm really excited taking a look around the cafe and they had a hidden room that was full of cat books it's actually incredible and there's all these little cats on the table it's so adorable I love this place and I've got it to myself there's literally no one here okay my catod dice is here he drew a little cute cat face on there for meod Japanese curry they're very typical in these kind of cafes and they're kind of homey and they just feel really comforting so I really enjoy this if you've never had Al rice before it's basically rice with ketchup so tomato sauce some onion maybe some vegetables like peas and then there's like an omelette on top and then if you've ever seen like an anime they'll put like a message on it like obviously it's cat themed so there's a little cat on there my Machel lat is here and there's a really cute little cat on the top I don't know how he did that I gu I guess he got the milk foam and then designed it so every time you come here you're going to get a different cat design a little bit of light rain but it's not stopping me from enjoying my day out here in kanazawa I recommend walking from spot to spot in kanazawa because most of it is within walking distance like 15 to 20 minutes but if it is a good sunny day get yourself a rental bike like this one behind me because they're very like budget friendly and the city is honestly a great way to discover by cycling around it's similar a Kure thr in that and if it wasn't raining I would get on that bike I've got the whole beautiful area to myself wow so so stunning this is kanazawa Castle Park and it looks magnificent look at that green lawn it looks beautiful it might actually be one of my favorite castles in Japan and it was owned by the Maya Clan who were very wealthy but now it is just restored and open to tourists and very rainy oh my goodness let me grab my umbrella today not much of it actually remains because a lot of it was burnt down in natural disasters but you can come here in Rome they often hold free events where you can enjoy for example team lab they're holding something now like a light up and then in the Autumn they have a light up as well as like a Lantern Festival which is really fun and my goodness it is raining there are still a lot of tourists out here cuz they want to enjoy this Castle no matter what the weather is pouring it's pissing I wanted to go around more but it is pissing with rain and everyone is taking refuge in this little like information resting Booth so that might be all I have to show you for canaz Castle Park unless the rain subsid soon this little Street on the way to the Japanese garden is actually called edel Machi Avenue you so literally ETO era Theme Street and I can tell why they named it this because all the shops are very ETO themed and it's very beautiful the trees the nature I like it I ended up deciding to come into one of the cafes that I spotted from down below to take shelter from the rain and I have no regrets I ordered myself a local hicha which is a roasted green tea and it's famous in this area they don't seem to have it anywhere this cup is just so beautiful Kaza is famous for its like crafts I can see the castle in the distance it's really cozy they've got sofa couches and the view is great I think it's important to be realistic because when you're traveling in Japan it might not always be the best weather but even if it's raining you can totally do these activities and there are a lots of other people in the same situation so you only got one day you're going to go and do it I believe in you welcome to Ken Garden this is said to be one of of Japan's most beautiful gardens and it's because it actually embodies six different characteristics which is in the name kenen waterfalls Stone lanterns Bridges tea houses this place is really popular every season it's most famous in the Autumn because the leaves turn red but in the winter which I haven't visited yet there's snow the snow falls and it kind of sticks onto the trees and they've got this kind of unique um wooden uh like sticks that hold it up and kind of protect the pine tree from any damage from the heavy snowfall entry isn't too expensive it's only 320 Yen and I think it's totally worth it to visit one of the best Gardens in the country it's got everything you don't need to even go to other ones cuz it's got all six characteristics these pine trees are a characteristic of the garden and they're absolutely beautiful I see them a lot in the UK like paintings of Eda Japan and I think they're very symbolic for the Japanese people and up close you can just see how stunning they are you don't get to see them quite often and they're well taken care of I can see a little workers making sure that they're trimmed or protected and that's why during the winter they've got to make sure these survive cuz they're very culturally [Music] important one of the major tea houses inside the garden is right behind me it's called good at there and you can have a matcha as well as wagashi and enjoy the garden and a tatami Japanese room so I'm going to give that a go cuz I did that last time I was here but at another tea house so it seems like there's quite a few here the waiting room to go inside a tea house now I wonder how long it'll take it's interesting system that we can wait in the tatami room and because of the um humidity and the rain outside the window is fogged up so we don't have a view after waiting you're taken to this tatami room next store where you'll be served your matcha and wagashi and I expected to be able to view the garden while enjoying the snacks but apparently it's afterwards so it took about 20 minutes till I could see the view so definitely come here with that in mind I wasn't sure what was happening half the time but on to the next spot if you're a fan of Samurai you have to come visit nagamachi District because it's right in the center of kazawa and it's literally where the samurai used to live and they were not just any Samurai they were the highly ranked ones so it's really well preserved here and we can actually visit some of the houses that they used to live in as well as Gardens and they're open to the public some of them cost money and some of them are free so I'm going to take a look this is one of my first few times walking around here cuz I didn't realize last time I came here that this area existed so I'm very excited this area also has lots of small side streets you can get lost down and it's kind of similar to the higashi Chay District but with less shops that are selling food and it's more restaurants and it's quieter it's a lot more peaceful at night time if you come here there's absolutely no one being a big fan of Na do I always came to Japan being like ninas but ever since like I've lived here and visited quite a few spots suai have been growing on me I feel like overseas ninjas are more popular but in Japan people like Su I actually came to a cafe here the other day and I had dinner nearby and they have a really good pizza place so I high recommend that it had like a marinara Margarita and it was so tasty welcome to O Market this is kaz's most famous fish market and it is bustling with tourists and locals alike getting their hands on some local produce they have tons of fresh fish as well as vegetables fruit and there's also like souvenir shops so if you want to just buy some stuff you can definitely find it here this Market has actually been around since the ETO era so it's got a lot of history and it's like the cultural food hub for the kanazawa city area and I can see that like it is busy and this is a week day I'm surprised how many people there are they've done a really good job to like keep all the shops like maintained and keep the culture alive this restaurant behind me is selling seafood dber and some of them are up to 3 to 4,000 Yen each so that's a little pricey and some of them are a bit fancy of because they gold flakes on top actually recommend coming up on the second floor which I didn't realize they had you can get an overview of the market you can see all the shops and how busy it is it's a good viewing spot honestly it's really fun just seeing what's available because there's a lot of stuff that I can't find back home in Tokyo and I've seen some like fresh fruit and veggies that I was like what are these even there are actually quite a few shops that have already closed so I'm assuming they open really early in the morning and people have already bought all the goods this is the kind of Market you can't come to too late in the evening it's definitely a come before 400 p.m. or even early in the morning like 8:00 a.m. right behind me is a fruit and veggie shop and I was really interested in some of the things I was selling because I hadn't seen them before they had some interesting lmes one thing caught my eye which was this Ruby Roman grape which for one single grape like this was 300 y I mean Japan is known for having expensive fruit but I've never seen like a single grape for sale so I was like why not it'll be fun so I'm going to give this single grape a go and I have no idea what to expect but it is made in Ishikawa prector which is where kazala is located so let's give it a [Music] try so juicy it almost tasted like red wor would I say it's worth 3 100 yen probably not but it was fun to experience it um definitely different to Australian grapes and also the texture was a lot smoother like the skin would kind of just like peel off and then you'd be chewing the inside on its own rather than kind of being attached oh yeah that was my grape analysis one other thing actually caught my eye at the fruit and veggie shop which was this hot sweet potato which is very popular in Japan during the Autumn season and it was only 200 yen cheaper than my grapes so let's give it a go M this is this is tasty I really like this it's not too mushy in the middle a lot of the times during Autumn you can find them like at places like donkey you can find it at supermarkets but it'll be really hot and crispy on the outside but the middle is just like mush but this is really firm I was talking to the owner of the veggie shop and he told me that isawa is famous for sweet potatoes so this is a good thing to try um their actual shop had 16 different varieties of sweet potato that's a lot of sweet potato I'm good with this one if you're at the market area there is one like souvenir um gift shop right at the entrance and I highly recommend popping by because you can pick up this Canad pudding which last time I visited my friend Emma got obsessed with and it it's really good I highly recommend it so let's give this a go and it's in one of these cute little glasses and you got to pour the caramel sauce on yourself haven't had one of these for one year [Music] oh my gosh this is so creamy I forgot just how good this pudding is if you don't manage to come here don't worry you can go to the station at the 7-Eleven at kazawa station before hopping back on the train the shin content you can pick one of these up one final spot I'd like to recommend is the toy gate at the kazawa station it is hard to miss because the moment you leave the station it is right there it's consider actually one of the most beautiful stations in Japan and I can see why because it's just so beautiful looks like wood but I believe it's glass and steel and it was after they renovated that they built this so Kaza is kind of known for its art and I think that kind of represents that very popular for photos so make sure to get a photo here when you start your kazala journey for me that's the end of my Kaza Journey so I'm going to be heading back to Tokyo but thanks for watching and I'll see you in another Japan travel series bye what

Channel: seerasan

Views: 112,853

Keywords: kanazawa, japan, japan travel, seerasan, explore japan, ishikawa, golden food, japanese food, traditional japan, kyoto

Id: zHVrlRNE8nQ

Length: 16min 1sec (961 seconds)

Published: Fri Oct 27 2023