Noto Peninsula [能登半島]

[Part 8 of 2008 Winter Road Trip]

We drove up the Noto Peninsula from Kanazawa, just to see what it was like.

It was windy.

But on the brightside we did see a glimpse of the Japan Sea. The Japan Sea was enjoying the wind and crashing happily about on the coast. We did at one point venture out of the warmth and protection of the car to have a little walk, battling against the strong winds to have a look at Ganmon [巌門]. We walked down to the edge of the sea, then went down some stairs that we installed in a tunnel the the mass of rock that formed part of the coast line. It was dark. We came out at the edge of a sea-eroded arch. However, the sea was rapidly and rather energetically approching the rock that we standing on. And as all the signs painted on the wall of the cave-like place that we were currently standing in were all pointing in the direction from which we had just came and said 'EXIT' we thought we'd better leave before the sea decided to take us with it.

Kanazawa [金沢]

[Part 7 of 2008 Winter Road Trip]

Kanazawa [金沢] is in Ishikawa Prefecture [石川県], up near the inside of the 'elbow' of Japan, facing the Japan sea. Unfortunately, the weather was not so good when we went. So the photos all look a bit dreary...

Parts of the town had the traditional mud walls, which were partly covered in straw sheeting when we went (we thought it was to stop them from getting too damp. Anyway, this is apparently the Nagamachi district[長町] of Kanazawa - where the samurai used to live.


Wondering around the Nagamachi district, we came across a very nice little ceramics shop (which also included a small museum and coffee shop - but we just went into the shop part). Unfortunately, the things that we liked were around a million Yen...so a little out of our budget. The ceramics were very impressive, we were particularly taken by some small tea cups (with lids) which had very fine Japanese calligraphy penned on the *inside* of the cup. One of them was barely bigger than a thimble.

Kanazawa also has a very funky looking torii [鳥居](usually a gate to a temple) outside the main railway station. Underneath the torii is a water fountain, which both tells that time and tells you occasionally that 'Kanazawa is good!'.