Once again I decided to wake up extra early to catch an early train out of town and into my next destination. Today's train took a l...

Kanazawa

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Once again I decided to wake up extra early to catch an early train out of town and into my next destination.
Today's train took a little over 3 hours that allowed me to take a couple of short little naps and backup yesterday's photos since by now I have learned my lesson of how important it is to backup the photos pretty much on a daily basis!

When I arrived in Kanazawa I was impressed by its very modern train station!


I immediately walked to my hostel to drop off my bags, grabbed a map and off I went to discover the new city!

My first stop was at the omicho market!
The whole market was filled with fish, food vendors and lots of overpriced fruit and vegetables. 




I used to complain about whole foods produce prices but I swear I'll never do it again! Here in Japan ONE APPLE can go to up to $5 a piece! That is just crazy! No wonder I never see anybody on the street eating an apple, but do see them eating a stick full of rice balls with soy sauce for 100¥! ($1)
I don't understand how these people are so skinny, all I see them eat is rice! White rice! Which has ZERO good stuff for your body, it's all empty carbs with no fat! On the other hand I look at white rice and I immediately gain 5pounds! 

Anyway, I had a couple of fish snacks in the market (I have given up all hope of not being pescetarian here in Japan!) and really enjoyed just walking around and seeing people eat things like sea urchin and fish on sticks.


Here they have so many different types of vegetables!





 People eating sea urchins!


... grilling squid!




After an hour or so at the market I walked over to the old Geisha district and enjoyed a stroll down the old streets.





I found this man making tiny crickets out of leaves


I had read that going inside a traditional Geisha house was a must do but I was so disappointed! I entered Shima house and it was such a waste of $5! I'm kind of counting my pennies here so to pay for that was just so disappointing! The house literally had 4 rooms upstairs with tatami floors and displaying some decorations... So not worth it!

After the disappointment of the geisha house I needed to cheer myself up and nothing does the trick better than Ice cream!

Oh my! Ice cream here is a little coo coo! I should have expected it though! Soy sauce ice cream... No comments! Miso ice cream... I am not screaming for ice cream! Sweet drink made with fermented rice milk... Yuk!
I am somehow adventurous when it comes to food but this I did not want to try! 
I ended up getting red beans in vanilla... Beans have protein... So it's healthy :-))


After the geisha district and looking at many people in kimonos on the street I walked to the Kanazawa castle. The castle was just like the others I have seen so I decided to only walk around the grounds.



Then I visited the Kenroku-en garden, supposedly one of the three most beautiful Japanese gardens. I was so tired so I really took my time to enjoy the garden, sat at multiple benches and just watched people walking around and enjoyed the beautiful scenery!





I just LOVE the reflection!!!

Once the garden closed I made it back to the hostel, showered, and met with the friend I made in Nikko, Sebastian. He did some research and found where we should go to party. We met at the metro station and walked for half an hour until we found the neighborhood but everything seemed very calm and we couldn't figure out where to go. Maybe it was because it was a sunday night and many restaurants were closed and there wasn't really a party scene.

At one point we went up the stairs to a restaurant that looked open but it turned out to be closed and with signs we communicated with one of the staff and asked him for a restaurant that was open. OF COURSE he did not give us any directions, he actually left his work and walked us to a restaurant! He went inside the restaurant and made sure they would take care of us.
Sebastian and I went in and sat at the bar, we were both a little lost and couldn't communicate at all! The staff spoke close to no english so our interactions were just beyond funny! The menu was all in Japanese and we couldn't figure out what to eat!!!


I ended up asking for tempura and using my favorite sentence "O nicu damé, vegetarian, fish ok" which clearly translates to "No meat, vegetarian, fish ok" haha

Sebastian on the other hand could not figure out what to eat and fortunately the menu had ONE drawing in it... the drawing looked like a dish with something like meat and a salad so he decided to order the drawing! hahaha I was not sure he would get anything close to it but when the food came we just started laughing because it actually looked almost like the drawing!


While we waited for our food we talked to the staff with hand gestures, and we all tried our best! The conversation was hilarious!!! I was laughing probably 90% of the time but the experience was just beautiful! The waitress loved talking to us so much that she even went to get her own beer and sat next to Sebastian!



After having a great dinner we wanted to go have some fun. We had said that we wanted to go do karaoke but thought it was a little lame just the two of us in a Japanese Karaoke, which means you rent a private room with a tv and a microphone and sing all you want. We walked for a while and were not able to find anything fun; I kept saying that maybe it was because it was sunday.
All of a sudden we heard Bon Jovi playing and thought there was a band in one of the buildings so we decided to go check it out. We were pleasantly surprised when we opened the door and it was a regular karaoke!!!!

We had a super fun night singing and looking at Japanese people sing. When I do karaoke I am always kind of shy because I am a terrible singer so we started our karaoke night by selecting duets just to start warming up. Once I heard a couple of Japanese people sing I knew my singing voice would not be a problem! One guy was hilarious! He clearly didn't speak english and chose a Journey song... he mispronounced almost the whole song and missed a couple of sentences... I would be just fine!!!
Sebastian started his solo singing by choosing a hardcore rock song... watching him sing just made the whole bar crack up! He really got into character and delivered that song like no other!

My singing choices were "shake it up" by Taylor Swift and then I did "Water under the bridge" by Adele... so much fun!

... This kind of photo happens when a drunk guy asks for your camera to take a picture!

My new Japanese friends.. haha

Sebastian and I actually closed the karaoke night  by singing "La vida loca" in Spanish! The night was unforgettable and we had so much fun!!!






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About Post Author

Hi! It's me... Andrea! In 2016 I decided to drop everything and take a year to enrich my life and travel around the world. It turns out the world is just too big for 12 months! Still on the road and sharing my experience as a solo female traveler around the globe!

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About me




Hi! It's me... Andrea!

In this blog you can live vicariously through my journey around the world!

Please feel free to share tips or places to go!
Contact me: andreaheartstraveling@gmail.com