Overnight at Kaga Onsen Birthday trip part 2

Kaga Onsen 加賀温泉
Kaga Onsen station is a short train journey away from Kanazawa. When you arrive at the station you are greeted by a golden Kannon statue looking over the station.

On the train on the way over I had some local ekiben. Ekiben are boxed meals, sold at major train stations. They come in handy on longer train journeys, and are a great way to try local specialities while travelling around the country. I miss these bento meals, and wish that the UK would get better at this kind of thing. Looking at all the sad looking sandwiches lined up on meal deal shelves in English shops, just makes me miss Japan even more!

Anyway.. Kaga Onsen... I chose to stay at Hoshi Ryokan, which is the second oldest hotel in the world, found in the year 718. It's in the Awazu onsen area of Kaga onsen, so I caught the onsen's free shuttle bus over to the ryokan. When I arrived, I took my shoes off, and was served matcha and wagashi (Japanese sweet) in the tearoom.
While planning this trip, I knew that I wanted a ryokan with a very typical traditional looking room with tatami mat flooring, sliding doors, and space for my futon on the floor. When I arrived at my room, I was amazed at how big it was! I have all this space to myself?!

The room looked out over the ryokan's gardens. When I arrived I was served green tea and rice crackers and then left to explore the room, and enjoy the hot spring baths.
Another thing I wanted my ryokan stay to have, was a rotenburo (outdoor bath). I went and relaxed in the baths for a while (I had it to myself), got changed into my yukata and went for dinner. Dinner is included at a lot of ryokan, and it's normally an elaborate meal with lots of small courses. The meal will be varied depending on the season.

I couldn't tell you what some of this food was, but it was delicious! I think I kept the menu, I'll upload a photo if I can find it.
When I got back to my room, my futon had been laid out ready for bed. The first time I slept on a futon on a tatami floor, I was shocked at how comfortable it was. The one at this hotel was just as comfortable.
The next morning before breakfast I went for a little wander around the hotel's gardens. These gardens are in the centre of the hotel, surrounded by the building. Everything is moss covered and there are koi fish in the ponds.

Breakfast was just as good as dinner!

I took this first photo, mostly to send to mum so she could laugh at how red my nose had got from being out in the sun.

Kanazawa Birthday trip part 1

Kanazawa 金沢
From the 26th April until 2nd May 2016, I decided to go on a solo trip for my Birthday.
I had already been in the Nishonomiya area for a few nights, so I took the train back to Osaka and got the Thunderbird Express service up to Kanazawa. Kanazawa has a unique station front area, with some interesting architecture at the entrance to the station.
I walked through the town towards Kanazawa Castle, and had a walk around the castle grounds and Gyokusen'inmaru Garden at the back.

Just across the road from the Ishikawa Gate of the castle is Kenrokuen Garden, one of the most beautiful gardens in Japan. The garden has so many areas and features to walk around. The plants and trees grown in the garden allow it to be beautiful in different ways at different times of the year.
I wandered round the gardens, exploring everything I could, from the lake with pink flowers dotted around the edge, to giant tree with it's routes exposed. I also stopped at at the teahouse for matcha and wagashi (Japanese sweet), while looking out onto the gardens.

 The iconic main view in the garden, with the lantern made with two legs instead of one.

Christmas Day 2014

Spending Christmas away from home feels strange. 2014 was my second time to do it, and this time I had to work on Christmas Day! I'm not really sure why because there was nothing there for me to do, but Christmas isn't really a holiday in Japan. It's more just for couples. I put chocolates on everyone's desks in the staff room at work and asked to use a bit of my paid leave for the afternoon.

In the evening I went round to Anita's house with Ana, where we were going to have some traditional Japanese Christmas food - KFC and cake! Every year in December people reserve their Christmas box of KFC chicken, and then queue up to pick it up at Christmas. Apparently, (according to Wikipedia) this started in 1974 when KFC started promoting their Christmas Party Bucket.

Me and Anita went to pick up our box at the nearby KFC. We also got beer, mikan (satsumas, because winter), After Eights (because I missed Christmas at home), and Ferrero Rocher (because I had some left over from giving them out at school).

We also picked up a Japanese Christmas cake, which is much better than our fruity British Christmas cake. Normally Japanese Christmas cake is sponge cake with cream and strawberries on, but we went for a chocolatey version.

So I spent my first Christmas in Sendai with these two :)

Kappabashi 2015

Kappabashi or "kitchen town" is an area that specialises in kitchen goods and everything needed in restaurants. They also sell lots of the wax and plastic food that you see outside of so many restaurants. It's withing walking distance of the temples in Asakusa. Even if you're not buying anything it's fun to look at all the plastic food and some shops sell kits for you to make your own.

In the shops there are all sorts of plastic food models: Italian food, sushi, ramen, rice bowls, nabe, ice cream, drinks, key rings with food on, vegetables, pizza, burgers, sweets, cakes. If a shop or restaurant sells the food, you can probably find plastic models of it here.

Being within walking distance of the temples I went for a quick walk down Nakamise shopping street (that road always reminds me of the school trips I went on to Tokyo). In the afternoon I went shopping in the shopping centre around the base of SkyTree. I still haven't been up the tower, I will at some point.

The next day I met Kaori in Yokohama. We used to live next door at Global House in ICU during my year abroad. So we hadn't seen each other for a few years. It was nice to catch up after so long, and hopefully we will again soon whether it's in Japan, New York, England or somewhere else in Europe.

The yummy matcha cake and matcha latte at Nana's Green Tea

Hirosaki 2016

Hirosaki 弘前 (Part 2 of my weekend in Aomori)
Hirosaki is famous for its castle, which is beautiful during the cherry blossom season. However, in 2015 the castle was moved to a nearby site for construction to the castle walls. This happens every 100 years. It's particularly impressive because the castle is moved whilst it is fully intact!

 

On my way over to the castle park, I stumbled upon a Yosakoi dance festival. This is a traditional type of dance that you see at festivals all over Japan. There were lots of dance teams performing in different parts of the city.

After watching the dancing I went to see the castle and the surrounding gardens. Neaby the park, I visited Neputa Mura, another museum about the Neputa festival and other loacal specialities. Some staff members taught me a rhythm on the big festival taiko drums and then we played them together. Around the museum there were shamisen performances, craft corners where you could have a go at making some local crafts, and decorations from the Neputa Matsuri festival.
 I had a local set meal at the museum's restaurant. It included: kenoshiru - a miso based soup with carrots, radish, konnyaku, burdock and tofu; kaiyaki miso - white fish, scallops, tofu, onion and egg cooked in a scallop shell; rice; and pickles.

After dinner I walked around the Fujita Memorial Gardens. I stopped in a Japanese house for matcha tea and a sweet to enjoy while looking out over the gardens.

On my way back to Hirosaki Station I caught the end of the Yosakoi festival where someone from each dance group was lined up along a road, waving their giant team flags to music.