Leaving Kyoto, Kanazawa Here I Come

I checked out of my hotel in Kyoto and took the train to Kanazawa on the Sea of Japan. One of the little storefronts by the hotel had a pitcher plant in the window, something I’d never seen before. 

I grabbed a cab to Kyoto station. You can buy your tickets from a machine, but I felt that under the circumstances I needed to talk to an actual human being. There’s one transfer, and the whole trip took about two and a half hours. So far, I don’t have a favorite city. Osaka is not as attractive; I mentioned that it was heavily bombed during the war, so there’s less traditional architecture. But they do have an amazing food district with about a million different kinds of restaurants and neon signs like I’ve never seen, not to mention the gigantic crabs that gesticulate at you; they seem kind of menacing; I was almost afraid not to eat there.

Kyoto has less of that kind of frenetic activity but a lot more traditional architecture and interesting residential neighborhoods; I know because I got lost in one of them for about an hour. I know that everyone, including me, has the impulse to go out into some little town to see the real Japan, but trust me, there’s plenty of real Japan going on all around. It’s the little things that really strike me. I’m not the first one to say so, but their convenience stores are amazing, and I don’t know why we don’t have that kind of thing here in the US. For one thing, they are much better behaved than we are as a group. Just as an instance, on virtually every corner there is a 7-Eleven, a Family Mart, or Lawson’s open 24 hours a day. Not only that, but you can buy beer, wine, sake, and even whiskey morning, noon, and night. They don’t make you go to a state store to buy liquor or wine. I can sort of see why they don’t in the United States. My experience so far with the Japanese is that they are very polite, helpful, and well-behaved, while in the US, I don’t think those are our best virtues. The crime rate here is so low in comparison to the United States, and (I’m not just talking about Kyoto versus St. Louis), I mean in comparison to Portsmouth, New Hampshire. Here in Japan, my understanding is that you can’t walk around with a pocket knife longer than 2.3 inches, let alone a 9-mm pistol with a mag that holds 24 bullets. In New Hampshire, I can walk around with a 45-mm cannon on my hip, and if I felt like it, I could sling a broad sword across my shoulders. Maybe I’m wrong, but that’s just asking for trouble.

On the other hand, I think we are a little restrictive in our laws about alcohol. In Great Britain, if I’m having a few beers with my mates, we can step out in front of the pub and finish our pints. If I did that in Portsmouth, the police would come and ticket me at the minimum, which seems a little excessive. In any case, these are very, very different cultures.

It was an effortless trip to Kanazawa. I bought a bento box at the station, but the first leg of the trip was so quick I barely had time to eat it.

It was a brief walk from Kanazawa station to my new hotel. This hotel is more luxurious than the one in Kyoto, but it costs about two and a half times as much. I think it works out to about $150 a night, which is incredible when you consider how much it would cost to stay anywhere in an American city in a decent hotel Once I got settled, I hit the streets and walk down to a local covered market. They really do have some good produce here, but it’s not cheap. I stopped and tried some sea urchin, fresh out of the shell. It tasted sort of like fishy custard—pretty tasty but a bit of an acquired taste.

These markets are all pretty similar, but the one in Kanazwa was more of the real deal, with fewer junk shops and more real buying and selling of fish and produce.

I did a bit more strolling around town. They have this sign at the entrance of a shopping street. I translated it, and it says not to ride bicycles on the street. OK, makes sense, but why are they a family of gourds?