Travel to Kanazawa

 

Hitting the rails again after our extended weekend in Tokamachi. We were able to catch up with all the family, including a brand-spanking new cousin who mostly slept through the appreciation of his cuteness. 

We road off in what is called the Hokuhoku line, which is a single track route through the various small farming communities in the Joetsu reason. It ends up in a station where we can catch the Hokuriku Shinkansen which gets us to the destination for today - Kanezawa.

Kanazawa is well worth a trip - we only had a day-and-a-half, but could easily have spent a week in this modern and traditional city. It was a rival of Kyoto during the Tokagawa period being the seat of power for the Saga Maeda clan, which was one of the most powerful during the Tokagawa period, so much so that the Shogun became suspicious of them and their wealth. To allay the suspicions, the Maeda began building up a craft and art center in Kanazawa making use of the regions skilled workers and resources.

One of these centers is the Omicho Market, and we all love markets. This place is a bunch of warrens with merchants in their small to medium sized shops offering a lot of fish, some local beef, vegetables, and a number of prepared versions of the wares. 

One of the first shops was grilling scallops in their shell - we  skipped that one. The next on had scallops on a stick - that one we didn't resist.

Grilled Scallops on the shell (and other goodies) - skipped

Scallops on a stick - eaten

The scallops were later washed down with a local Craft Beer also available in the market.

We ended the day eating at a sushi place that, of course, sourced it all in the market. It was formally a high end conveyor-belt sushi restaurant, but Covid has killed that approach for distributing food (for now). It was lovely sushi and a good way to end the day.

Former Conveyor-belt Sushi, but really good.

Naturally there are far more pictures for this set than could make on the blog. As usual, they are on my Google Photos in an album at:

Travel and Omicho Market - https://photos.app.goo.gl/DYB8SyjXZHguuU8p9