One last look at Kanazawa before leaving the following day – this is Kanazawa castle at dusk.

The following day we had two train changes, each of 5 minutes, to make the trip from Kanazawa to Takayama. So in a few minutes, with heavy baggage, need to find elevator/escalator, find new platform, find escalator/elevator again. Made the first connection with only a few seconds spare but the second was easier – small station with only two platforms.

The train line was single track, and with my excellent command of the Japanese language I was able to persuade them to let me drive!

The fall scenery was lovely as we made our way by train to Takayama;

Takayama was/is an isolated community so it developed its own culture and skills, notably carpentry, and sake.

The beef from nearby Hida is also renowned so we tried some and can now vouch for its reputation. The area is also famous for apples, and we tried those also – excellent. We stayed in a ryokan in the middle of the town so it was very convenient for examining one of the other notable products of the area – the sake. It too proved excellent – Jean is sampling;

The Hida beef was very very tasty!

Both Still standing after sake sampling.

Looking for breakfast on the river at Takanawa

Overview of the city of Takanawa.

Our Ryokan hosts.

Kanazawa Castle plus Modern Art Museum for the day.

Unfortunately the Modern Art Museum was mostly closed because they were preparing for a new exhibition. So we saw an exhibition/interpretation of Gaudi’s life which was rather good. There were a lot of original materials such as this document for a proposal for a university facility, prepared in 1870.

Jean then went to try some local crafts, including locally made parasols.

Then to the famous Kanazawa castle. Rebuilt a number of times, of course, because Japanese castles were almost always made from wood, and, guess what, they all burned down several times over hundreds of years.

Jean could not control her umbrella in a gust of wind, so here it is, on its way to the moat at the castle. Fortunately there were no officials around or she might have been told to dive in remove it.

The good news is that is was a $5 umbrella, not a $500 parasol!

Finally some sushi, at a small place owned by a husband and wife couple. Great sushi from smiling hosts.

Off to Kanazawa via the “Thunderbird” train, seen here arriving at Kyoto.

After arriving at Kanazawa we went to Kenrokuen, a garden developed from the 1620s to the 1840s.

The story about Kanazawa is one of gold – 1,200 years ago a peasant named Togoro stopped to wash his potatoes at the well. Suddenly, flakes of gold began to bubble up from thewell, giving Kanazawa – meaning ‘Marsh of Gold’ – its name. The garden has been open to the public since 1874

Even the streams need to be cleaned regularly.

Heron poised for evening snack.

I guess we missed a good show!

Old gaslight still in use in Kanazawa.

The five storied pagoda of  Kōfuku-ji in Nara, at dusk.

Founded around 700AD, an important buddhist temple.

 Horseback archery in Kyoto

Yabusame is a type of mounted archery in traditional Japanese archery. An archer on a galloping horse shoots three special “turnip-headed” arrows successively at three wooden targets. We were lucky to find it coincided with our Kyoto visit.

This style of archery has its origins at the beginning of the Kamakura period. The original shogun leader from Kamakura, who ruled around 1195, became alarmed at the lack of archery skills his samurai had. He organized yabusame as a form of practice. The archers ride at full speed past three targets over a 250 yard track, controlling the horse with their knees as they try to hit all three targets.

It seems women also take part in this ritual, and actually seemed more successful than the men. I doubt they were given the same opportunity by the old Shogun folks.

Another good chance to meet up with old friends in Tokyo

 Dinner with Friends at Elio’s

Had a great dinner with old friends at one of our old favorite places.

This poor guy didn’t stand a chance