We were woken this morning by some very shouty ladies who obviously thought it was time to get up. I didn’t mind too much as I had made a discovery:
wonderful bed + memory foam pillow + solid walls = sleep
Bliss.
A crazy breakfast was consumed, including chips, yoghurt, fried chicken with curry and cocoa pops. There are a lot of Asian tourists in this hotel (we are assuming they are Chinese, but we don’t really know) and I think that is reflected in the breakfast. The dining room host was very concerned about the door lintel. He must think Keith grew over night and has never been tall before. Oh well, he thinks he is helping.
We successfully bought day bus tickets from the front desk of the hotel and ventured outside.
Hot hot hot. 34 degrees and 58% humidity. Hot.
The nice lady on the front desk had also managed to book us onto a Japanese only tour (NO SMALL KIDS!) around a Ninja temple. The plan, concocted the night before, was to visit the market on the way but we were a bit late so we hopped on our first “left loop” bus from the station and set off to the other end of town.
We found the temple with no problems as everyone on our bus was heading the same way. There was barely any shade outside the temple and you were not allowed in until 10 minutes before your tour. We performed our ritual cleaning (although were disappointed that there was no incense for our souls!) and took our shoes off to enter the temple. We had been promised an English translation and I was slightly concerned when the Japanese recording started, but sure enough the lady appeared with two folders of information in English. They have obviously had ne’er do wells in the past as we had to sign them out and promise to return them!
After a Japanese interlude, a lovely lady asked us to stand up and started our tour. Once you had read the English, it was surprisingly easy to follow the context of what she was saying in Japanese: mostly “Mind your head”!
There were many features of the ninja temple whose description elicited audible gasps from the captive audience: pitfalls, secret stairways, hidden doors, secret rooms for praying and watching. Inside there was no breath of air and we were all melting. Then the lovely, lovely lady took us into a secret room (without taking us across the secret bridge as it was too old) which had an air conditioner. Sudden heaven.
Our next stop- via the wonderful bus- was the Omi-cho market. We were greeted at the entrances with blocks of ice for visitors to wipe their hands on to try and cool down. We found enormous crabs and oysters and eventually two useful little towels to soak in water and use to reduce the childrens’ temperatures. Everyone else seems to have them and they definitely seem to improve the level of comfort.
Another trip on a local bus (which was accidental, but still took us to the station) allowed us to experience the wonder of the German Bread shop. We weren’t brave enough to try the curry doughnuts, but the fried chicken sandwich and the apple pastries were delicious.
After lunch, we went for a wander around a fancy department store and Mila and I found a number of extraordinarily expensive bags and pencil cases. Keith wasn’t keen, Danny wasn’t interested!
The next stop on the agenda was the Ishikawa Prefecture History Museum. Expert as we now are at Japanese public transport, it was no effort to get as close as possible on the bus, but it still required a short walk. This was fortuitous as we accidentally went into a temple on the way. Mila decided to pay for a stamp and we handed over the book she brought with her for sketching. This provoked some conversation between the artist and the assistant which culminated in Mila being given a present of a book with the right paper in it! The artist then did his thing and produced a beautiful calligraphy entry in her new book.
Outside the temple was a path, decorated all along with the prayers that people had hung on them. A beautiful, calm space in the middle of all the tourist hustle.
The museum we had been aiming for was deserted, with only a handful of other people in it. We were given free English recordings of the displays and learnt a bit more about Japanese history. We saw some carbonised rice that had been made on the eve of a battle, a reconstruction of a burial mound and a model of the park at Kanazawa Castle with light up sections controlled by buttons. We learnt that the lords subjugated their followers by keeping their wives and children as hostages and forcing them to parade back and forth from their lands; walking hundreds of people for 13 days and 12 nights and costing so much money that they couldn’t afford to rebel. Keith took some photos, despite there being signs everywhere saying “no photography”.
The highlight for Mila was the section where you were allowed to dress up. She challenged some gender stereotypes and the ladies responsible for dressing the children, by requesting the samurai armour and not the pretty kimono. Obviously I just joined in to keep her company…
We hopped on the bus again, this time to the Geisha district: Higashi Chaya. The museum that was supposed to explain the gold leaf making process was expensive and looked dull, so we went to a recommended shop instead and were forcibly subjected to a demo and explanation of gold leaf making and using. Then they served us cold roasted tea with gold leaf floating in it. A lady sprayed Mila with body spray with gold leaf in it and everyone bowed and smiled a lot. We didn’t buy anything… not even a lolly with gold leaf wrapped around one end. Why?
In another shop we saw some of these beautiful decorations. They are shockingly expensive so we took some pictures instead – again surrounded by signs saying “no photography”. I am sure Granny will be able to reproduce them!
We didn’t see any actual Geisha, just tourists dressed up for the day, but we did see a lady cycling along with a toddler in the basket, so that more than made up for it!
Our bus status was upgraded to “public transport grand master” again as we got back on the loop, via the station and back to the Samurai district and Chochinya for chicken wings and skewers.
It was totally impossible to find as it was only labelled in Japanese (Keith took a photo to help future travellers!). Our wonderful WiFi had stopped working and we were back to low tech paper maps. Food panic. Fortunately, before we starved to death, the WiFi started working again and we found it… hurrah! The nice man shook his head and made a cross with his forearms. Not open, come back at 5.30pm. Sigh.
It was definitely worth waiting for. Epic chicken wings and all the skewers were completely delicious and the potato salad was very tasty. I managed: “toriniku wa oishii desu” then kicked myself for not squeezing in a “totemo” as well. Yum.
The left and right tourist loop buses stop at 6pm, but we managed to get a proper local bus back to the station (we are now officially experts!) for sweet snacks and an emergency wee before a quick walk back to the hotel. It was much cooler once the sun had gone down.
Mila and I went to the public baths in the hotel. They were pretty basic and uninspiring but it was weirdly nice to soak and relax in hot water after such a hot and sticky day.
Finally a bit of a relax and a bit of a blog and another sleep.