My Trip to Kanazawa

Last week, My family and I went on a week long trip to Kanazawa with some of our family friends. Kanazawa is a city in Ishikawa prefecture which is located near the coast of Japan. I was very excited for this trip as I had not gone for a vacation to a place outside of Tokyo for more than a year. Furthermore, I was very excited to be going there with my friends and family. 

Day 1

I got up at 5:00 in the morning, and left our house at 6. For the trip, we had booked two Toyota HiAces, in order to fit in all 17 of us and our luggage. As we drove along the winding roads and majestic mountaintops, my friend and I settled down to watch a movie(We watched 5 in total by the end of the week!). Our first destination was Kurobe Dam which is Japan's tallest dam. Sadly however, we didn't get the opportunity to visit it as we could only reach the dam by taking a train and the last train had just stopped running 15 minutes earlier. Nevertheless, we continued our drive, exploring the beauty of rural Japan. We next stopped nearby a beautiful river. The river had rapids and was adorned by white sand on its banks. We had a gala time skipping stones and wading through the water. After spending a few hours beside the scenic river, we got back into the cars and drove to our residence for the next two days, a large traditional Japanese Airbnb house. This was my first time staying in a Japanese house and the atmosphere of the place was very calm and uplifting. We had a fun time making dinner, singing songs and drumming beats to them at the same time. At the end of the day, we fell asleep exhausted, awaiting the next day. 

Day 2

We went to Shirakawa-gō  which is a traditional Japanese village. From the moment we got of the car, I could feel the beauty and quaintness in the air. There was a rapid stream running in front of us and we had to cross an old wooden bridge to get to the village. That was an experience by itself! When we reached the village, I realisied that its architecture and layout had been planned extremely well. The houses are built in a style called Gasshō-Zukuri, which are designed to shed of snow easily as the roofs are slanted. This is important as places like Shirakawa-gō. There were a mix of shops selling deserts and houses serving the traditional Japanese lunch. There were also paddy fields doing to the landscape.

 After walking across the length of the village with raining lightly drizzling on us, we boarded a bus which took us to a viewing point overlooking the entire village. When I stood from the viewing spot in Shirakawa-gō  I felt that I was looking at one of the most beautiful landscapes I had ever seen. There were pine trees to the left and mountains adored the border of the image. Down in front of me lay the manmade traditional village which was very quaint. To the right, there was a stream running by the village and behind the village, there were paddy fields with the sun shining brightly behind it. I was absolutely held spellbound when I saw this pearl of scenery. Afterwards, we walked along a quaint street which was preserved from the times before modernization. Following that, we headed back to the house. 

Day 3

After a lazy start around 8 am, we left the traditional Japanese house that was our residence for the past two days, and got into the car. We first visited a small temple with a magnificent statue of the sitting Lord Buddha. We then headed to a bay with a towering white bridge bridge linking to the Noto peninsula. We ascended to the top of the bridge and had an amazing view of the sea all around us. Then, we drove around Noto peninsula and saw the beautiful scenery around the area. We also headed

 to a beach with a rock front and had a nice time talking and taking photos over there. We reached our hotel around 6 pm, and it was right next to the sea. When I reached the hotel, I was held spellbound by what I saw. The lobby had glass walls and the sea was spread out expansively in front of us, giving us a spectacular view. After dropping off our bags in our rooms, my friends and I explored the hotel. It was very impressive as it had many amenities such as table tennis courts and a billiards table, a video game centre, an arcade centre and two onsen one indoors and one in the open air. After playing table tennis and eating dinner, we had an extremely refreshing bath in the onsen. Then, we chatted for a while and watched a bit of a movie before falling asleep midway. 

Day 4 & 5

It was raining sporadically on the fourth day. However, we first went to an old street full of traditional shops selling homemade products. What struck me was the exorbitant prices even for the smallest of items, which may have been due to it being homemade and the lack of customers due to Covid-19 for the shopkeepers. Then, we went to a colossal terrace garden comprising of paddy fields. This was situated right next to the sea and the rugged coastline winding across the horizon was a spectacle by itself. 

After spending time taking photos, we went to a Salt Museum where they showcased massive rocks of salt and displayed the methods using which Japanese had traditionally made salt. This too was beside the sea so my friend and I had a fun time jumping from one rock to another and trying to go as far as we could out into the sea. From there, we visited another beach. The beach is famous for a giant monolith that is about 200 m into the sea. We then returned back to the hotel and spent the rest of the day relaxing and having a good time.

It was the fifth and last day! After 4 days filled with fun and excitement, we had to leave Kanazawa. After checking out of the hotel, we began our journey back home. The return journey was quite quiet as we reflected on the past days and relaxed by watching movies and listening to music. We did stop to have some of Kanazawa's famous sushi. My favorite was the crab sushi which was absolutely lip smacking. After a seven hour drive, we reached home. 

All in all, I had an amazing 5 days in Kanazawa alongside my friends and family. This is a trip that I will always cherish and remember as all of us had so much fun and have acquired so many wonderful memories😀