Rathany

This area has some great onsen and lots of neat areas to explore. I will warn you though, sections of it are very touristy. There are lots of little, faded ‘museaums’ that are pretty much collections of random stuff.

We stayed at a hostel called Kappa Tengoku Ryokan. The place had good and bad points. The baths themselves were fabulous. The yukata, futons and tatami mats were comfy. But, other than that, the place was a bit colorfull. The floors in the halls tended to be 70s linoleum that had been worn through in spots. I’d managed to avoid squat toilets until we arrived. The greeting we got from our hosts was them commenting on what big boobies my friend has.

Anyway, we got a huge, traditional room for not much money and we had a great time there.

Kanazawa is a greta place to see pre-WWII Japanese architecture. I love architesture, but was worried that the friend I dragged along with me would be bored. We both fell in love with this city. Kenrokuen Garden was amazing. We could have wandered in there all day.

We stayed up on a hill in a hostel. Wandering down the hill we kept coming scross little temples and statues and other art.

We went to Seisonkaku Villa which is am old mansion. The walls have gold leaf designs. The upstairs rooms have vibrant color schemes.

Near the end of our day there, we went to a gold leaf shop. They gave us tea with gold leaf in it. Then we were shown the back area where they were making gold leaf by hand.

I never made it to the preserved samurai residences. I will definitly spend more tim ein this city when I get back to Japan.

I lived for months in Bath when I was an exchange student. Oxford and London are both amazing cities that I love.