Food culture 301: Kanazawa Special: All that glitters

One more thing that Kanazawa is famous for is gold leaf.
Incidentally, approximately 99% of Japan's golf leaf is produced in Kanazawa.

It is no surprise that gold leaf is widely used here.
For instance, you might have noticed that the crab I had was littered with gold leaf:

Furthermore, the plastic food models are also laced with gold leaf:

And when you have the traditional arts of gold leaf production and traditional Japanese tea ceremony in a single place, you are bound to get some extravagance.

And this is one of them. Gold sweets for the Japanese tea ceremony.
Yes, that is a sweet with pure gold in it.

How did it taste?
Like a big mouthful of luxury.

A special thanks to the lovely people who bought this for me.

Food culture 301: Kanazawa Special: Kagari Kisshotei

The second installation of this series is a dinner at a Japanese ryokan.
Needless to say, I am still unable to read the many complicated kanji used in food terminology, so what you get is a very simplified description:

A seafood jelly, whelk and huge broadbean-like bean

Assorted sashimi. Notice the fresh wasabi!

A sort of river fish, cooked over smouldering ashes

Crab! A whole half crab all for me.

Braised vegetables

Tuna cooked in an iron pot. It is hard to see how humongous this piece of tuna really is from the photo, but that cup of water is a regular sized water glass.

Tempura.

Rice and pickled vegetables

Dessert. Shame about the whipped cream.

Scenery 101: Kanazawa Special: Kaga Onsen part 2

Aside from the hot springs and souvenir shops, Kaga Onsen is great for nature walks... which an old man kindly pointed out on checkout day... thank you, kind old man. 

Characteristics of Japanese nature walks:

1) Beautiful nature trails:

2) Gushing waterfalls

3) Assorted bridges

4) Magical fungi

5) Views of the male outdoor bathing area

Disturbingly, the trail offered a rather unobstructed view of the male outdoor bathing area.

It was a good thing that in the blistering summer heat, not many people bothered hiking...

Alas, the views from the airconditioned lobby of the ryokan was an equally good alternative to actually hiking outdoors.

Scenery 101: Kanazawa Special: Kaga Onsen Part 1

So a little detour outside Kanazawa led me to Kaga Onsen, a famous hot spring resort about 45 minutes by train from Kanazawa town.

The key attractions:

Souvenir shops!!

And, wait for it, the MAIN souvenir shop!!

Here's another picture of the MAIN souvenir shop. It has a clock tower and a foot bath behind the clock tower too, if anyone feels like doing anything other than shopping.

And in front of the MAIN souvenir shop, there is a public bath house (in the sense that anyone can enter if they cough up some cash). And in front of the public bath house, there is a fountain of pure unadultered hot spring water. At a scalding 65 degrees Celsius, this water is unsuitable for contact with human flesh, but you are encouraged to buy some eggs from the public bath house to simmer for anywhere between 40 mins to an hour to get hot sulphur laced eggs which are meant to prolong your life. I guess what doesn't kill you technically prolongs your life.

Scenery 101: Kanazawa Special: Kenrokuen

One of the three best landscaped gardens in Japan, and often cited as the best of the three. This is Kenrokuen in Kanazawa.

Oldest fountain in Japan

A double stone lantern...because two is grander than one

Artistic photo of flowers growing along the river banks

Whilst the presence of this bonded stone may have been sufficient in ancient times to signify "Do not cross", this simple sign is currently reinforced by some steel barriers and written words in several languages which have not made it into this photo for artistic reasons.

Stone bridge, with running water beneath and lush greenery around.
Some call it design, others call it a failure to measure the width of the river correctly. 

Bridge, this time wooden, with running water beneath and lush greenery around.

Big tree

Summer isn't the best time to visit Kenrokuen as it only exudes green.  Rather, Kenrokuen is meant to be particularly beautiful in the winter when huge wooden structures are erected to protect the trees. I guess I'll have to go back again then.

Scenery 101: Kanazawa Special: Kanazawa Castle

Like most castles in Japan, Kanazawa castle is a sight to behold.
Like most castles in Japan, Kanazawa castle is also fake, sadly.

Japanese castles have a knack of burning down, no surprise given that they are typically made of wood.
So Kanazawa castle is a replica of the original, still currently undergoing reconstruction.

But as you can see, despite it being rather spotlessly clean, and smelling of fresh paint, it is absolutely majestic.