Early morning in Kanazawa

origamiunicorn ♦ July 31, 2018 ♦ Leave a comment

Neighborhoods

Part of the reason I decided to stay in Kanazawa was because I had to change trains there to get to Kyoto from Nagano. The other reason was to see the very famous Ken-rokuen garden. I had planned to go yesterday when I arrived in Kanazawa, but because it was so late I had to change my plans.

I read online that the garden opens early and you can go for free in the early morning. My train to Kyoto was scheduled for 9 am, and I got a late start, so I gave up on the idea of getting there. I decided instead to walk in that general direction and try to get back to the hotel around 8 am to pack.

In the quiet early morning hours, I walked through small side streets through residential neighborhoods. I saw a lot of older folks outside gardening and cleaning. Several people said good morning to me (“Ohayou gozaimasu”).

I reached some kind of park entrance that had a Do Not Enter sign. It listed park hours starting at 7:00 am and it was shortly before. A Japanese woman also stopped to read the sign. I started up a conversation with her saying that it was too early. She was surprised to hear me speak Japanese and we talked for a bit.

I decided not to wait for the park to open and started heading down the street. In this area, the street went alongside a waterway full of carp. I stopped to admire them and then moved on.

Kanazawa Castle

I reached a path and saw a few people walking down it. From my map it looked like it went to Kanazawa Castle, so I decided the follow it. The path went alongside a small woods with a stopping point along a small pond. The path was also dotted with statues and sculptures.

I continued along until I got to Kanazawa Castle. I didn’t actually enter the park, I just took a couple of pictures of the castle.

There were trails around the outside of the park so I followed a few of those. By this point, the temperature was starting to rise and I was sweating. I came across a man wearing exercise clothes doing various calisthenics as he walked. I passed by him and he said good morning so I commented “undo shimasuka?” (“You are exercising”)? Again, a simple sentence to show that I could speak a little Japanese and we had a short conversation.

I walked a little further to the entrance to Ken-rokuen, but now it was getting late and I needed to head back. I had an uneventful but lovely walk back to the hotel and then hopped on the train bound for Kyoto.