On the move again!

Monday morning we caught the train to Kanazawa, a town east of Tokyo on the Sea of Japan.  It was a very pleasant city with wide streets, not too crowded and a few sights to keep us occupied.  The hotel we used was the best so far.  Room enough to put the cases down and a little table to sit at for breakfast- we bring bowls, spoon and muesli with us and buy milk and yoghurt.  It was all very groovy with black accessories around the place.

this was the amazing  the Kanazawa station - the lady with the dog was very kind and posed for me!

Our first visit was to the Omachi markets just up the road where we had lunch then off to see the Kanazawa Castle - huge gardens and very beautiful.

The stone walls are enormous and so flat and smooth- it is hard to believe they were made by hand!

such expanse surrounded the castle.

the doorway to the actual castle.

these people were weeding the lawn - I think to remove the winter grass.  Very labor intensive!

This was a little enclosed garden next to the castle- it was so beautiful!

we are now in the grounds of a shrine near the castle.  It had a bit of sculpture going on in the grounds.

there was an special exhibition going on as well which seemed to use bamboo as the main ingredient.

on and down the street to an area where the Samurai once lived.  

inside the front door of the samurai’s house. I am not sure what they did here.

part of The streetscape 

inside a Museum house 

The rooms were always tatami mat floors and were bare. Sometimes they had elaborate screens but generally decor was pretty simple. 

Some fish in the pond

The gardens seem to be meant for meditation - very peaceful!

after this we had a bitter f a wander around some shops- not hard to miss those here - and then wandered down the road to the hotel.