Journey to Kanazawa

After a leisurely morning in our hotel room, we departed around 8:00 for Narita from where we would take a train to Ueno and ultimately Kanazawa. This long journey started with much backtracking and meandering as we tried to find the proper exit from the hotel, as the primary exit through the lobby leads to non pedestrian-friendly roads. The road to Narita was comparably unclear, as we inevitably got turned around and had to retrace our steps.

Our first stop of the day found us in the Naritasan park, where koi-filled ponds are surrounded by functional Buddhist temples and stone shrines that litter the landscape. We first went to the Great Peace Pagoda, which is surprisingly modern and was built in 1984 on the 1150th anniversary of the park. After lighting some incense outside the pagoda we wandered over to a small restaurant where we gesticulated our way through ordering some rice and chicken curry and some sort of noodle bowl as well as a bottle of Japanese beer. Much refreshed by this hearty breakfast we strolled through the main temple complex where we saw a plethora of Japanese-looking buildings and a multitude of devout Buddhists who, on their way to entering the main temple, cleansed their souls by inhaling incense that billowed forth from a large cauldron. Leaving the park we perambulated through shop-filled streets on our way to Narita station. From here we boarded our first train which took us to the city of Ueno where we then boarded a fabled bullet train on the Hokuriku Shinkansen line leading to Kanazawa. From Kanazawa station we took a surprisingly direct walk to our Airbnb through a light drizzle which prompted two of our party to purchase umbrellas at a small store. Our Airbnb is very spacious and looks like a traditional Japanese dwelling, complete with paper windows, sliding doors, and futon beds. Our last excursion of the day took us to a grocery store where we were confounded with a variety of strange Japanese food including sake juice boxes, interesting caramel sausage cookies, and some strange pink disks which were not sweet as we hoped but rather salty and fishy.

We finished the day after dining on some presumably pork stir fry accompanied with some sort of oats which the Author mistook for some fancy rice at the grocery store.

-Nathaniel

The sidewalk into Narita was lined with these tiles that depicted countries and famous sites. This one harkens to a previous post.

 

The author in front of a shrine in Naritasan.

 

A Japanese cat housed in a pagoda. Meow, or Nya as they say here.

 

Maryrose and Theodore in front of the Great Peace Pagoda.

 

Maryrose and The Author in front of Komodo Hall.

Some intricate carvings on a pagoda.

 

Some Oni supporting a shrine containing Bhuddist volumes.

 

A twisting dragon guarding some sort of sword. This sword was a recurring motif in the park; we saw many littered around the park but are not sure of their significance.

 

The Author in front of a Japanese lion sentry at the park's entrance.

 

The entrance to the park included a bridge over a pond that was full of turtles. Every bit of dry land, including the backs of other turtles, was covered in turtles.

Theodore in front of one of the many vending machines here. This machine prepared Theodore and The Author a cold chocolate drink.

 

Theodore in front of a Shinkansen. Our train was named Hakutaka, which means White Hawk.

 

Some of our groceries. Pictured are, left to right: pancake mix, sake juice box, some sort of oats (that look like rice in the picture), the caramel sausage cookies, a pack of pork meat and green beans, the nasty pink things that look like sweets, and a carton of milk.