Part 8 Japan 🇯🇵 Kanazawa

Mo. 06.04.2026

Goodbye Tokyo / Hello Kanazawa

10 days in Tokyo flew by.

Now our journey through Japan begins.

At 9:38 AM, we departed from Ueno Station on the famous amazing futuristic Shinkansen train. “Wow, the nose is even longer than expected.”

It took us 2 hours and 49 minutes to reach Kanazawa, arriving at 12:27 PM. During the trip, we enjoyed great views of the sea on the right and snow-covered mountains on the left.

Kanazawa is often referred to as little Kyoto of Japan. This castle city, with over 400 years of history, is especially known for its well-preserved districts from the Edo period.

We took a taxi (since we didn't want to wait long for the next bus, but it was still relatively cheap) to our hotel, Henn na Hotel Kanazawa Korimbo, where we will be staying for the next 2 nights. Here, we paid about €61 per night. The dinosaurs were still sleeping (an explanation will follow later), so we couldn't check in yet, but we could leave our luggage there.

We quickly set off to see the main sights. The weather is said to be better today than tomorrow.

Within walking distance was Kanazawa Castle. This is a partially rebuilt castle that was built by the wealthy Maeda family in 1583 and was home to 14 generations until 1869. Nowadays, not much of the original castle remains as it was destroyed multiple times throughout the centuries due to natural disasters.

During the Meiji period (1868–1912), the castle was the main seat of the Japanese army. It then was used by Kanazawa University until 1996.

The entire complex consists of several buildings and many gardens.

To describe it in one sentence: No matter where you look, you always see the perfect picture, and if you were to see a photo, you would think it has been overly beautified. Cherry blossoms are seen everywhere, and together with the castle, it is incredibly beautiful. Absolutely stunning.

We wandered around there for some time and then went to the opposite Kenrokuen Garden.

This garden is considered one of the three most beautiful gardens in Japan. Well, we couldn't get enough of it. We truly understand now why everyone is so crazy about Japan's cherry blossoms. It all looked like a scene from a cheesy fairy tale. So beautiful!

A quick look at a shrine:

Then we went to the old Samurai district of Nagamachi, which was also nice but didn't impress us as much.

For dinner, we thought we would find something delicious at the Omicho Market fish market. We read that you can eat well there. Unfortunately, we found out that it closed at 5 PM. However, this issue continued. Apparently, here in Kanazawa, everything seems to close up by 6 PM at the latest. We then found several smaller restaurants in a shopping center and were able to eat very good sushi, which the sushi master selects for you, and a bowl with rice and sashimi.

Afterwards, we went back to our hotel to check in.

There, we were met by the receptionists, who were now awake:

Very cute. They moved properly, looked at us, and told us what to do.

Our room was also very nice with futon beds. Though again, there was hardly space for luggage, etc. But we knew that.