Lights up!

After the first week of courses, I finally had a chance to get out of the campus area and go see Kanazawa city center! I and a Polish girl from another dorm unit took an uncomfortably full bus to the Musashigatsuji station, where my tutor and a couple of her friends were waiting for us. We went to have dinner at a nearby restaurant...and it turned out that my other tutor works part-time in that very place! (Yes, I have two tutors – it has something to do with the fact how one of them may become quite busy in the spring term with her studies, or so I was told.)



Food. I finally learned how wasabi actually should be used.

After dinner, we were supposed to go to see a show called Projection Mapping at Kanazawa Castle. We saw a long queue outside the castle and tried to find the end, but a staff member appeared and told us that there were already more people in the queue than the four performances of the night could take, so there was no use in staying. A little disappointed, we decided to go to the Kenrokuen Garden instead – it had been on the list of our places to visit, either way.

In Kenrokuen, they had lit up certain places in the garden as a special celebration and it was absolutely wonderful. I had no hope of capturing the lovely views with the camera of my phone, but I decided to definitely visit again on a quieter day.

Quite soon after we arrived, there was a performance on the garden lake: a kimono-clad woman sat in a boat and played a wistful song with yokobue, a traditional Japanese flute. Below is a video from a similar show from the summer event (the video is obviously not mine).

 

Me and my Polish companion were aiming for the last bus back to the university (on weekdays you can get around pretty well, but you must be careful in the weekends because most buses stop running around 9 or10 in the evening), but my tutors friend offered to give us a ride in his car. We sort of felt bad for being such a bother, but still accepted the offer because the last bus would probably have been even fuller than the one we had taken on our way to town.

Near the entrance of the Kenrokuen.

Since I had missed the castle on Saturday, I set off on another adventure the next day, this time accompanied by a Slovakian friend from the neighbouring unit. We left the dorm around noon, and thus had several hours to look around before going to see the castle. First, we visited some shopping centres in the Katamachi area. It was just for fun, though, as most items were ones we could not afford or that we could easily find elsewhere. The number of shop assistants was a little surprising: no less than three smartly dressed ladies patrolled a tiny area selling designer wallets and all of them greeted us individually with a bow and a cheery cry of Irasshaimase (“welcome” as used by customer service staff). They seemed to keep an eye on us even after that, and I’m not sure if it was just so that they could see if we needed help or to make sure we didn’t steal anything… It was a little unnerving.





First time spotting kimonos with furisode (long sleeves)!

A little way away from the larger shopping centres, we found a street full of small, individual shops that were more pleasant to look around. The interesting thing here was how different tastes and ideas coexisted peacefully: right next to an indie/punk themed clothes shop (with matching music plying in the background), there was a tiny accessory shop where someone was holding a classical violin mini-concert. We also found a local gathering for some local subcultures: lolita fashion, manga and anime merchandise, board and card game playing areas…plus a maid café in the highest floor (didn’t visit though – we were not quite ready for that particular experience at this point).

We headed towards the castle and stopped by the Museum of Modern Art. After having a quick lunch (courtesy of a takoyaki van outside the museum) we had a look at the collection of the musem. It was exactly what modern art usually is like…some of it clever and inspiring, some just a little strange…

 

A very fun piece in the museum: the people in the room below look like they're standing inside a pool filled with water!

We finally headed for the castle sometime around 17:30, about 45 minutes before the show. Only when we walked inside did I realise how incredibly LONG the line had been the previous day. For us, the mass of people seemed just crazy already but Saturday had to have been something else entirely. The show itself was much more amazing than I had anticipated – my camera couldn’t do it justice (and I didn’t want to distract myself or the people behind me by trying to take too many pictures anyway) so I’ll direct you to this Youtube video… (again, not mine)

After managing to get ourselves out of the castle area (that was more of a challenge than it sounds like, thanks to the crowd) we visited the Kenrokuen again, as my companion had not yet had a chance to do so. The garden was still nice and I didn’t mind listening to the boat concert again, so I had a good time again.

Monday was a holiday due to it being Health and Sports Day (got to love Japanese public holidays, right?). However, this was a little ironic because the typhoon that had been going around the country decided to arrive on this particular day. I stayed firmly inside, taking naps at inappropriate hours and getting some homework done – I think the rain didn’t stop all day.

- BONUS - Things Japan and Finland have in common: "if it exists, you can get a Moomin version of it".