Obviously, all that relaxing in Yudanaka had to come to an end and our next stop was Kanazawa where we’d spend the next two days exploring. To get there we had to return to Nagano and then catch the Hakutaka 559 Shinkansen to this northern coastal city of just 446 thousand residents. We sped past mountains, rice fields and industrial centres and even got sight of the sea for a brief moment.
We stayed at a very olde worlde hotel here with a very civilised lobby lounge with beautiful stained glass window decorations. We had another huge room with all mod cons and Jane and I were happy to see that our luggage had arrived safely after forwarding it from Tokyo!
We arrived mid afternoon and soon set off for our ‘Meet the Geiko’ event which we’d organised ourselves. Geisha’s in Kanazawa are known as ‘Geiko’ and we learned that during their peak in the 1920s and 30s there were between 300 and 500 Geiko whereas today there are just 36. This evening we’d get to meet two of them in the traditional tea house district of Higashi Chaya. Clearly this was a performance and explanation for us tourists but there were only 30 people allowed in the audience so it felt quite intimate. We watched as the two ladies danced with fans, sang (unusual), played a 3 stringed lute called a shamisen (tuneless) and my particular favourite – played the traditional reed flute which sounded lovely. The tune she played was about the wind on a beach and we were encouraged to close our eyes and imagine the scene. It was very meditative. After this they played games with the audience including a mimicking game with drums. This made a great loud sound and I think this may be how they let out their emotions! Then they played the traditional cup game called ‘Konpira Fune Fune’ where two players facing each other takes turns to tap the cup on the table with a flat, open hand. If the other player picks the cup up, then the next player needs to tap the table with a fist. This gets faster and faster as the accompanying music speeds up.
After this we were encouraged to ask questions but mostly we we admiring their beautiful kimonos, make up and exquisite wigs. And it was now time to take photos.
Afterwards we had a walk around the dark lantern lit streets which are extremely well preserved here as Kanazawa was largely spared from bombing in WW2. Most places were closed but just a few tasteful little shops were open and by now we were turning our thoughts towards food! We’d spent ages on the train trying to find somewhere but struggled. It looked like we were heading towards a stand-up Shogun Burger, when we stumbled across ‘Yoshi’ with a sign outside that said they had seats available now. Up the stairs we went and met the smiley chef called ‘Natal’ who spoke barely any English. There was no one else there (customers or staff) so we sat around the cooking station and watched as he prepared our rice bowls of ‘Autumn Vegetables and Sweet Shrimp’ for me and ‘Waygu Beef’ for the girls. This was all accompanied by a fine glass of cold Cabernet Sauvignon and when served my veg were given an added sprinkle of gold leaf- in recognition of this speciality craft of Kanazawa. What a fantastic private dining experience this turned out to be. I think we’re going to like little Kanazawa…..
“Stand-up Shogun Burger” 🤣
All so lovely xx