It never rains but it pours

Date: Friday 9^th August 2014

Weather: Rain, rain and more rain. I wouldn't have minded but it was still very humid though, the rain did give me an excuse when I met a pretty lady and I was pouring with sweat (hopefully she would think it was rain).

MP3 track of the day: Listen to the rhythm of the falling rain – Jason Donovan

No alarm had been set but I still found myself up at a very respectable time. Due to the shower room being occupied (plus I was in no rush therefore I felt as though I should let people who have buses and trains to catch use the shower first) I went down to the common room and resumed work on yesterdays blog. It is true that my blog does take a lot of time (somewhere in the region of two to three hours per blog) and I am sure there are some of you asking why I keep going with it when my current holidays are so short however, today my blog was a blessing in disguise. Once I had finished my blog I went back to my dorm and got ready. I had just finished cleaning my teeth when I herd the distant roar of thunder followed, very closely, by the sound of a torrent of rain. What followed was a ten minute period of action-packed drama as guests dived back into the hostel whilst the owners ran around the building closing all of the windows and putting on all of the air-conditioning units. I continued to get ready as if the chaos behind me wasn't happening. I decided to stay in a little longer than I had planned to let the worst of the storm pass; I read my guidebook and formed a plan of action, always thankful that I had written my blog this morning or else I would have been in the middle of town without an umbrella.

At around 10am the rain had died down enough to justify leaving. A few other guests thought I was crazy however, with only one day here I had to make the most of it. I flew out of the hostel and into my car. I rummaged around and found my umbrella which I had bought last August in Sendai (I was amazed that it still functioned as an umbrella as it had been thrown around the boot of my car for the last year). I then left my car and headed back to the train station.

As I walked away from my hostel I felt very British. Sure my trainers, shorts and bag were bought in Japan, my T-shirt was from China and my baseball cap was from America however, I was wearing black socks with my shorts and I was 'getting my monies worth' by venturing out on a day where no other nationality would dare. Last nights mystery of why there were not any restaurants near the train station was solved this morning as I viewed a map of Kanazawa city. It would appear that the centre of Kanazawa was no where near the train station at all; in fact, I was looking at a good twenty minute walk before I even hit the edges of the main tourist area. I thought that this was highly bizarre until I realised that my home city of Derby was just the same.

Today I was trying a completely new photographic technique, known in the photography world as 'shooting from a covered way'. If you venture on to my Flickr website, you will see all sorts of excellent buildings shot from the most peculiar angles. Today my photography was certainly dictated by where the cover was but fortunately, there was quite a lot of cover as I walked around town.

Once I had stopped at Mr Donuts for a rather late breakfast I decided to enter the city's castle park. Due to the rain I was going to head straight to the '21^st Century Art gallery' (recommended by my guidebook) however, though the rain hadn't fully stopped, it was certainly lighter than it had been at any other point that morning.

Before entering the park I had to go through a Buddhist / Shinto (one or the other) shrine complex. A man was there praying and so I respectively took photos of locations where he wasn't praying. This became a sort-of weird dance as we moved around each other. Finally the man came to me, gave me 5 Yen (3p) and told me to place it in the money box and pray. How was he to know that I didn't like religion. To save a long argument using broken Japanese, 'loud and slow English' with a wide variety of gestures I did what he asked and even gave a small bow. From the back of the complex the man watched me before leaving.

I soon found myself within Kanazawa's castle park. Due to the rain I pretty much had the whole park to myself. I planned a logical walking route which would allow me to see the whole park in the shortest time. Some of the park – and a part of the castle - were under construction and so that limited the area I had to cover. Once again I dotted from cover to cover taking the best shots possible. Considering that the grounds were free I was very impressed; the grounds had different areas consisting of different landscapes which included an open grassy field area, the open grounds in front of the castle, a small water garden and a small humid forest. I went through each area (the forest, rather quickly) ticking them off until I was content that I had seen all that there was to see. Before leaving I checked the Castle Grounds Map once more, content that all had been completed. I left the area and pushed on towards a garden.

This was no ordinary garden. As my guidebook put it:

“... Early morning or late afternoon are the best times for catching Kanazawa's star attraction, Kenroku-en at it's most tranquil, otherwise your bound to have your thoughts interrupted at least once by a megaphone totting guide and a party of tourists – such is the price of visiting one of the official top three gardens in Japan. Kenroku-en – developed over the last two centuries - is rightly regarded as the best.

Originally the outer grounds of Kanazawa's castle, and thus the private gardens of the ruling Maeda clan, Kenroku-en was opened to the public in 1871. Its name, which means 'combined six garden', refers to the six horticultural graces that the garden embraces: spaciousness, seclusion, artificially, antiquity, water and panoramic views. It's a lovely place to stroll around, with an ingenious pumping system which keeps the hillside pools full of water and the fountains - including Japan's first – working. There are sweeping views across towards Kanazawa's old geisha district, Higashi Chaya, and many marvellous pine trees, pruned carefully throughout the centuries to achieve a certain shape...”

As I paid the 350 Yen (£3) entrance fee I wondered that, if this was Japan's official top Japanese garden then surely, that meant that this was the best Japanese garden in the world. Due to the rain the tourist groups had stayed away; the park was light with guests and so I found it easy to move in between the parks different areas photographing – when weather or cover allowed – at will. Japanese gardens consist of many small walkways – lined with small bamboo fences – with a main body of water somewhere. Usually there is either a stone, or wooden arched bridge placed over said body of water. This garden did not disappoint and even though it was summer, somehow some of the trees were dressed in their autumn clothes. I meandered this way and that. In between the maze of tiny paths lay small mounds of grass with usually a tree or two on top and a couple of rocks. Around each corner was another centre piece, which was very different from the last. I was so lost in my 'zing and zang' world that I almost didn't notice the skies becoming extremely black. When I did eventually notice, I had pretty much seen the whole garden; I therefore decided to quicken my pace and leave the 'worlds best Japanese garden' and head to the 21^st Century art gallery (another must within my guidebook however, I just wanted somewhere to get out of the rain). I had, of course, left it a little too late and heavy rain started to pour down as I left the gardens. I gave the ticket lady a bow and, from her little shed, she gave a sympathetic one back. I raced across the road and into the art gallery.

Japan is not renown for wonderful architecture. I have found most of Japan to consist of practical square-shaped boxes, only broken up by the odd temple here and there. In Kanazawa I found two buildings where beauty was higher on the agenda than practically; one was the eastern-entrance to the train station and the other was this 21^st art gallery. The art gallery was circular in shape with glass outer-walls. Inside, the exhibitions were split into three important themes (free exhibitions, standard collection which you had to pay for and a temporary exhibition which you also had to pay for). Due to the layout of the building these all appeared to be jumbled up with one another however, I didn't mind; getting confused and back-tracking was a small price to pay for actually finding a Japanese building which wasn't boring in design. I looked around all of the free exhibitions before heading to the ticket office to decide what I was going to view. The art galleries standard collection was 360Yen (£3) to view whereas a combined ticket to both the art galleries collection and the temporary collections cost 1,000Yen. Being low on cash I decided to leave the art gallery and head to the local post office for more funds. The rain had died down again and it was in this time that I had a think about which ticket I wanted to buy.

Buy the time I had returned to the art galleries ticket desk I had decided to opt for the art galleries standard collection only. The lady tried to give me the 'hard sell' however, she could tell that my mind was made up. I thanked her and proceed to where she had told me to go.

The art galleries collection focused on 'reflections and viewing things through things' (hence why the buildings outer-walls were all made from glass). I could mock this collection as some of it consisted of looking through glass, a big black oval on a giant stone wall and a small 'diver action figure' in a wine glass full of water encased within a glass box (you looked at said action figure through a periscope) however, I did actually quite enjoy it. I can't say that I ever 'got' what the artists were trying to portray within the works presented but, most pieces were very 'hands on'. Within twenty minutes I had seen all that their was to see. I prepared myself to venture back into the watery world outside.

The only real mistake I had made today was with my choice of footwear. Normally, the trainers I had on my feet were very comfortable however, the rain which hit the pavements of Kanazawa had bounced and, over the last four hours, socked my socks. I therefore shuffled my way into a department store which, I had hoped, would have been full of places for lunch. I was wrong. Instead, I entered a word which was unknown to me. Three floors awaited all with small boutiques housing clothes which the shop staff wore (whether this was to entice you or warn you I could not decide). I was just about to leave this nightmare of commercialism when I spotted a 'Vieda France' sandwich shop. It wasn't actually what I was looking for but it 'would do'. I purchased two sandwiches, a cake and a drink for £5 and sat down.

Whilst reading my guidebook, I discovered that there were only two areas of Kanazawa left to explore. The first is where Geisha are trained; this area was a thirty minute walk east and with my feet protesting, I left that for another trip. The final area housed some old samurai era streets. Kanazawa escaped bombing within World War 2, therefore the old stuff here is actually authentic. Luckily this area was where I was currently located. Also the area flowed in the direction of my hostel. After a quick meeting with my feet they agreed to one final push and away we went.

The area of Nagamachi was where the old samurai streets could be found. The area was pretty small therefore, it didn't take me long to wander the cobbled streets peering over the mustard-coloured earthen walls into a private world of small Japanese gardens and beautiful samurai era houses. This area reminded me of Kakunodate, which I visited two years ago. It was beautiful and it was here that I decided that Kanazawa is actually a very nice city. It seems to have something for everyone with flashes modern art and modern architecture, in between pools of old samurai houses and traditional Japanese gardens. If it wasn't for the weather, I would say that this could be a contender for somewhere new for me to live.

All too soon the Samurai era faded into the 1980's box era. I instantly recognised where I was and followed the request of my feet to go back to my hostel. I stopped only once to pick up a cool bottle of coke and, once at my hostel, I sat down with my computer and wrote up as much of today's blog as I could.

Due to the weather, I stayed within my hostel – watching 'Youtube' videos – until about 7:30pm when I went out for dinner. I had agreed with my feet that I wouldn't go far and so I went back to the same restaurant I visited last night except this time, I had a curry.

As I walked back to my hostel I noticed that, for the first time today, the weather was almost perfect. It wasn't hot, humid or raining that hard. A breeze was flowing through the city making it very pleasant indeed.

Once back at my hostel I uploaded this blog and prepared for an early night because I knew an early morning would follow.

So tomorrow I plan to get up early and leave Kanazawa before the morning rush. I will have to make a stop for petrol and breakfast but after, I will head straight to three UNESCO heritage villages before making camp in the mountain city of Takayama ('Taka' means high and 'Yama' means mountain). Once again I have a curfew however, it's 10pm.

Toodle Pip!

P.S. There are a lot of French people here.

Larger than I expected

Date: Thursday 7^th August 2014

Weather: Around the Noto Peninsular it was actually kind of cold. It rained a little but it generally stayed dry. The biggest problem was that the sky was covered in cloud; this resulted in the subjects of all of my photos having a horrible white background. Once in Kanazawa it got humid; very humid indeed.

MP3 track of the day: The Red Warrior – The Last Samurai

Due to going to bed at 8:30pm last night, I did not need an alarm to wake me up at 6:00am. The air-conditioning had been on all night and so I awoke to a very cool room. As soon as I awoke I got on with my blog and, two hours later, day one had been written. Once completed I moved onto the more mundane jobs which included getting a shower, brushing my teeth and packing my stuff. I left the Ryokan around 9:30am. A traditional Japanese custom is to wave all visitors off as they depart however, I had a lot of 'sorting out' to do in my car and so I told the manager of the hostel that a 'goodbye' wouldn't be necessary. He didn't take any notice of me and waited, out-of-sight, for me to leave so that I wouldn't feel obliged to rush. Once ready I left the Ryokan and saw the manager, hiding around the corner, as he bowed in my direction.

I was quite sad to leave my Ryokan as I had enjoyed my short stay there. As I drove along the narrow street, which my Ryokan is located on, I saw a few temples and a park nearby. It was then that I started to wonder if I had made a mistake; maybe Takaoka deserved more of my attention. Shortly after that I turned right onto one of Takaoka's main streets. It was here that I was greeted by a sea of boarded up shop front's and run-down areas. It seems as though I made the right choice after all.

Before heading to the Noto Peninsular I stopped, once again, at McDonalds for breakfast. In my defence, finding a decent western breakfast in Japan is extremely difficult. The Japanese treat breakfast like any other meal; they usually eat rice, miso soup and fish. I cannot eat rice so early in the morning therefore, while on holiday, I usually visit a McDonalds, or 'Mr Donuts', for something smaller and sweeter. Once I had consumed a 'hot cake breakfast' I went on my merry way. The time was 10am.

It wasn't long before I found myself heading north up towards the Noto Peninsular. Today I had decided to take the '248' – which circled the peninsular – only leaving the road where it didn't go right to the edges of the peninsular. For the first twenty or thirty minutes the area I found myself in was quite built up. I therefore didn't stop and pressed on, searching for the small fishing villages my guidebook had promised me.

The Noto peninsular is split between two Japanese prefectures. Toyama prefecture covers about 15% of the land whereas Ishikawa prefecture covers the rest. Due to starting within Toyama prefecture I drove through that part first and I have to say, it didn't seem very welcoming. I can't really describe it; the small fishing villages were positioned along the coast, the sea was very pretty and there was lots of vegetation. This area had everything I required and yet, it felt as though the area was wanting me to pass through it as quickly as possible without stopping (it probably wanted me to go back to Toyama prefecture's main cities and spend loads of money). When I did see a sight worth snapping there didn't seem to be anywhere to park and, once parking was found, any decent sight had been concealed. I did force a 'photo stop' upon the area, but only one.

Soon I found myself leaving Toyama prefecture and heading to the main part of the Noto peninsular. I drove through many small fishing villages, each village separated from one another by a host rice paddies, steep hills and lots of trees. Yesterday I put all of my concentration into driving, to make sure that I arrived at my destination in the best possible time. Today I enjoyed pressing the accelerator pedal a little less, and the frequent photo stops were a welcome relief for my legs.

My plan for the day was to travel up the eastern-side of the peninsular and back down on the western-side. I didn't have any serious aims or objectives apart from to photograph some terraced rice paddies on the peninsula’s eastern coast and to get to Kanazawa (my next stop) around 6pm. The eastern-side of the peninsular was a lot flatter than the western-side. This resulted in the villages and towns being 'deeper' in construction, rather than wider. The villages were very similar to the villages I had seen on Sado-ga-shima, and the terrain matched the Shimokita peninsular. In fact the only thing of any real difference was that most villages had a small harbour located extremely close to their houses. The exit of said harbour was through a tunnel, above which was the road which I travelled along. Once through the tunnel the harbour met the sea. Another major difference was that the Noto peninsular had some rather large urban areas. It would appear that a lot of raw material is shipped to this small area of land; whether it was because the peninsula’s shape made for a perfect harbour, or that the water was very deep here I did not know however, these urban cities came with a large amount of cars, many sets of traffic lights and small one-lane roads resulting in a slight dislike for these areas.

I was having a great time photographing this, that and the other, without a care in the world … until about midday when I realised that, in two hours, I hadn't really covered any distance at all. As I looked at the map I realised that this peninsular was a lot larger than I had first thought and, if I wanted to see it all before 6pm, I had to cut down on my 'photo stops' and do some solid travelling. I therefore drove for about two hours stopping only once. After 2 hours I found myself at the most northern tip of the peninsular.

As I approached the peninsula's most northern tip, signs directed me to a sort of 'look-out'. Not sure what the place actually was I decided to have a look, only to find a small car park, a shop and an attraction which consisted of a viewing platform with a collection of old looking Japanese houses below, built within the small space between the sea and the rock face. There was a gate, and a list of prices for all sorts of things. I decided to stick to the car park, take a few 'cheeky photos' before pressing on and stopping once more to photograph the peninsula's most northern village. Once done I got back in my car, extremely conscious that time was ticking by and I had only seen half of the peninsular.

At around 3pm it started to rain. The rain was not that heavy at all and so I braved it to take photos of some terraced rice fields which I had read about within my guidebook. Throughout my stay in Japan, and China, I had wanted to over-look terraced rice paddies and, though I was indeed over-looking terraced rice paddies, they weren't very big and it did feel a little fake. It mattered not; I raced around the area taking photos of the rice paddies from different angles before getting back into my car and heading towards Kanazawa. The time was 3:15pm and I still had over 100km to go!

At first the road was very kind to me. There was little traffic and, when I did meet a slow car, it either turned off or there was plenty of room to over-take it. Once I got further south, the rural parts of the peninsular gave way to the more urban parts and things got a little more tricky. An annoying aspect of the Japanese road user is that, when they turn either left or right it, for some reason, takes them forever. This means that when a car in front of you finally disappears, it takes them so long that a car usually pulls out in the distance and takes it's place. The final straw came when a car in front of me had reduced it's speed to 25km per hour so that the driver could play with his sat nav; a short sharp horn blast soon sorted that out!

For the last hour the road widened and speeds increased. I was now back within the heavy urban area where cities collided with one-another. Of course this meant that I got lost on more than one occasion and, once in Kanazawa itself, things started to get really tricky. My hostel is close to the western-side of the train station however; I found myself on the eastern-side. It was 6pm and so traffic was heavy and it took me forever to navigate my way to a road which crossed the railway line and put me on the western-side of town. With that finally achieved, the traffic died down (I think the western-side is more residential, whereas the eastern-side has all of the shops and hotels) and I started driving down impossibly narrow streets trying to find my hostel. Once again my 'patients-o-meter' was running dry and so I stopped to ask a lady for directions. Once at my hostel an old, cheery, man greeted me and showed me where to park. It then took quite a while for me to decide between the things I would need for a two night stay, and things I could leave in the car knowing that it would probably get very hot tomorrow. As I viewed each item I possessed a curious hair dresser – from the shop across the street – watched me. I smiled at him and, once finally ready, I went inside my hostel.

The building can only be described in two words; new and small. The hostel was actually a small, modern looking 'family house' with a very white interior. It had been converted into a hostel and, with so many bodies, it was actually very hot. I met the owners – both of whom were charming – and I went through all of the necessaries (which included payment; I've never liked that bit). Once in my room I found it to be unbearably humid though, I was assured by the owner that the air-conditioning would be turned on soon, and kept on throughout the night. I put all my stuff away and got out a fresh set of clothes whilst sweat was dripping down my face. I had a shower before leaving my hostel in-search of food.

Being almost 8pm I wanted to find something quick to eat. I went to the obvious location for food – the train station – but was flabbergasted to find a lot of the retail units closed. Once out on the western-side of the station I found an Aeon shopping area. All Aeon shopping areas have a food court and so I headed towards this large, 6^th storey building in front of me as happy as a sand boy.

Okay so apparently not all Aeon shopping areas have a food court. The lady on the information stand did inform me that there was a 'fast food rice bowl' place within the station. A little bemused I listened to her instructions and tried to follow them however, I still could not find anything which resembled a food outlet. Finally I headed out of the train stations western exit and down, what I thought was, the main road. It wasn't long before said main road was starting to look less and less like a main road and so I turned around however, not before stopping at a convenience store for a drink.

By now I was fed up, hot and sweaty. I decided that I would find a convenience store close to my hostel and get a bento (a Japanese boxed lunch). As I passed through the station for a third time I finally found the rice bowl restaurant ... and so I went in.

The time was now 8:15pm. I finished my rice bowl, thanked the members of staff, and walked back to my hostel. For the evening I sat within the common room and chatted to an array of friendly French and Japanese people as I uploaded the photos, which I had taken today, onto the internet. I also checked my emails and worked on my blog (the only two people who didn't look like they wanted to talk were both native English speakers … how ironic is that). I finally gave up on my blog – halfway through – around 10pm and went up to my dorm … which was indeed very cool.

So the day turned out to be quite busy due to the sheer size of the Noto peninsula. In hindsight I wished that I had booked a night on the peninsula itself as that would have meant that I could have taken my time; never mind. Tomorrow I will get up when I am ready and not before; I will then hit the streets of Kanazawa. It is going to be hot and humid however, it will be nice to have a day out of the car.

Toodle Pip!