KANAZAWA: Kenrokuen Garden 兼六園, 21st century museum, Le Musée de H cafe

Like I previously wrote in my earlier post, I don't usually do touristy spots pictures/review. But Kenrokuen garden is SO spetacular, it would be a shame if I didn't show how pretty this place is. Also because I thought I did manage to get some really pretty shots la... hahahaahaha good things must share right? :p

We visited kenrokuen right after going to omicho market ( click here ) it's really easy to get here, if you have the JR rail pass, you may hop onto the JR bus for free and this JR bus takes you to all of the major touristy landmarks like the garden, the museum etc

Alternatively, you could always jump on the left right loop shuttle buses. 500yen for a day pass. 200yen per trip. 

The outside of kenrokuen....

enrokuen (兼六園) is classified as one of Japan's "three most beautiful landscape gardens" alongside Mito's Kairakuen and Okayama's Korakuen. The spacious grounds used to be the outer garden of Kanazawa Castle and were constructed by the ruling Maeda family over a period of nearly two centuries. Opened to the public in 1871, Kenrokuen features a variety of flowering trees which provide the garden with a different look for each season.

ISN'T THIS JUST SO BEAUTIFUL?!

The name Kenrokuen literally means "Garden of the Six Sublimities", referring to spaciousness, seclusion, artificiality, antiquity, abundant water and broad views, which according to Chinese landscape theory are the six essential attributes that make up a perfect garden. 

You know the Japanese maintain their national gardens? I was lucky enough to catch these aunties in action - pulling out " bad " grass so that they do not spoil the healthy grass. 

wow. just wow. Can't ever imagine such things happening in Singapore or even Adelaide. Okay Singapore if you really wanted you probably could hire some foreign workers.......

Speaking of foreign workers in Singapore, I have the greatest respect for them. I do understand and acknowledge that without their hardwork, Singapore would not be clean and green like now. 

And to bigots who are intolerant of foreign workers and depriving them of equal rights, you should just go f yourself. 

A short walk away from kenrokuen gardens is the 21st century museum that people might know it best for the famous " swimming pool" installation.

I didn't get a picture of it in my phone because there were just too many other visitors crowding all over but... I did really enjoy this installation of colours 

 I didn't pay to enter the other displayed showcases but there was this free showcase I went into it's called deathLAB - conceptualising death ( click to read more here) - I found it really interesting

Another short walk from 21st century museum if your breakfast has already digested, is a really nice cafe/dessert shop - Le Musee de H that you can do both eat in and takeaway.

KANAZAWA: Omicho Ichiba 近江町市場 - Yamasan Sushi honten

I have been taking things really slow the last few days, we were in my favourite city in the whole world - TOKYO ( and I say were because we are currently on the shinkansen to hokkaido), recharging for the next 2 weeks of skiing :D

And the reason why I haven't been blogging is because, Nick and I practically binge-watched this newly on netflix high school teenage british show - Sex Education.
We loved it, it's so funny. Well done to all the actors, esp Otis and Eric ! My favourite duo :D

Continuing where we left off...
Kanazawa is an amazing city to have seafood because it's just right off the sea of Japan.
Eat to your delights, minimal radiation. The downside, if you dreamt of having X-men mutant kids, your chances of having one from eating the seafood here is unlikely.

Having been once to Omicho before in the huge snowstorm last year ohgosh, don't even get me started. There were limited shops opened. Last year we randomly ate this kaisen don restaurant and even so, it was amazing, just look at the overflowing amount of fish!

And if seafood is not really your thing, there's also stalls selling wagyu beef sticks.

Yummy

This year we came more prepared, we did more thorough researched, rather Nick did the most thorough research and for the first time he told me " we need to eat at this restaurant"

Quite overwhelming stepping into this restaurant, there's this old chef dude just standing near the doorway, and he isn't doing anything apart from slowly disassembling you from top to toe with his watchful eyes.....

And behold, the whole reason why Nick chose this place is because, they serve the MOST beautiful kaisen-don (topped with goldflakes! ) 

3000yen FOR THIS BOWL. heaps of seafood including snowcrab!

Incidentally past by this heavily queued oden shop. Aiya, I was brought up in Asia so I always have this asian mentality of " QUEUE AH? QUEUE = VERY GOOD" 

So I joined the queue, but meanwhile we needed to have a strategy because tables were taken up very fast, and Nick can't possibly stand at an empty table without any food while I queue.

So we ordered from cooked dish from the same stall. 

Fried oysters because oysters are my favourite and oysters are in season :D 

Grilled scallop in butter, YUMMM can't ever go wrong 

And this is the oden menu.

Look at how long the queue is!

Me almost approaching the queue

Our motto for this trip is " Eat the Best only " Meaning, lets say shop A sells beef. But shop A's specialty is Chicken. Just because I like to eat beef doesn't mean I have to eat beef. So I should only eat Chicken from Shop A. 

So I ordered oden that only can be found in Kanazawa

The bowl that I'm holding on my left hand ( your right), it's nogoguro ( black throat sea perch) meat stuffed in a crab shell. It was AMAZING. 

 Kanazawa is really close to Tokyo, about 2.5 hours via Shinkansen.
I really recommend a day trip out of Tokyo to Kanazawa if you have days to spare just for the seafood ( very very reasonable price! In fact I would even call it cheap for the seafood quality you get! ) and....

BONUS HERE. I usually don't review/post pictures of tourist attractions but.. my next post... shall feature..... Kenrokuen Gardens, one of the top 3 gardens in Japan, is really beautiful. And I highly encourage all to make a trip to this garden if you're ever in kanazawa. Its worth more than the 310yen admission fee.

KANAZAWA: Higashichaya old town 東茶屋街

Kanazawa has three, well preserved chaya districts, Higashi Chayagai (Eastern Chaya District), Nishi Chayagai (Western Chaya District) and Kazuemachi.

Of the three districts, the Higashi Chaya District (東茶屋街, Higashi Chayagai) is the largest and by far the most interesting. 

Last year when we were here in Kanazawa, it was snowing so heavily. I really wanted to eat the gold leaf ice cream from Hakuichi ( a shop specialising in Gold leaf ) so we specially took a taxi down and braved the snow. 

Thankfully that shop was opened, because almost every other shops were closed. And also even if the other shops were opened.. there was no way we could have navigated the whole street in snow like this.....

This was how it looked last year....

And this is how it looks today

I saw this Japanese variety show a few weeks ago. Reporters from various part of Japan has to introduce famous food from their city. And this reporter from Kanazawa introduced tamagohan. Raw egg on rice. 
I remember going wtf? such a simple dish? 
The raw egg were from these breed of chickens called Ukkokei (Silkie chicken) and apparently the chicken does not lay eggs everyday. The eggs are laid once every few days, hence the eggs are more expensive than usual. 
Also, you are able to pick up the egg yolk with a chopstick, and the yolk can bend almost 180degrees without breaking WTF. 

Silkie Chicken are called as "the king of the medicated foods". As the "super high quality food", the rare silkie eggs attracted media's attention. Our company's professional silkie chicken farm in Kawaga Prefecture has 21 years' history on the raising of purebred silkie chicken. The silkie chicken are so tasty, nobody can forget. Silkie chicken are the unique animals in the land containing DHA (Docosahexaenoic acid) and EPA (eicosapentaenoic acid). They also contain rich Vitamin A, Vitamin B2, Vitamin B12, Vitamin E and pantothenic acid. That's why we think silkie chicken as "Magical Food".

And this company has a shop in higashichaya ! Unfortunately they only sold produce of the eggs ( cake, ice cream etc) instead of the egg itself, I would really loved to try a raw egg on top of rice ( tamagohan) 

THE EGG ICE CREAM WAS SO GOOOOOODDDD 

Diagonally opposite Ukeian is a croquette shop selling really delicious croquettes. We had their Number 1: Kanazawa shrimp. 

Highly recommended

Ran into an old couple with their Frenchie Harry while strolling along Higashichaya!

 Had stop by for a chat and to take a picture . Super proud of myself for being able to hold a full conversation with the old couple in Japanese :D

 Super cute body wear on Harry. 

Man, I wish Singapore has winter too, I would totally dress Beefe up. He would be the most pimped up dog around hahaha.

KANAZAWA: Otome-zushi 乙女寿司

Goodness I'm now 5 days behind my schedule ! :o  This post is going to be out of chronological order, but I thought I'd better blog it quick before I forget this wonderful dining experience.

Nick and I are currently in Kanazawa now. And looking thru my older posts, I realised that I still haven't blogged about my Kanazawa post last year :/ Anyway, when we were here last year, Kanazawa had a HUGE snowfall and we were essentially rendered handicapped. Most shops were closed, the traffic wasn't moving. 

This was me last year, knee high in snow. 

We had a booking at Otome-zushi, a 1 michelin star restaurant at 5pm last year which Nick and I were half an hour late for. However, that was one of the best sushi meals we have had in our lives! And at a very reasonable price too. 

Hence we purposely made a trip back here this year to do all the touristy stuff and to visit Omicho market again, AND to eat at otome-zushi AGAIN. 

Otome zushi is a MUST MAKE reservation restaurant. We have seen multiple people being turned away as they do not have any reservations. There is 2 seatings for dinner, 5pm and 7pm. Each sitting able to accomodate 8 people at the counter and max 4 people in the private dining room. They are also opened for lunch tho I'm not sure about the timings. 

I'm not sure if they have a caller ID or something but when we used an Australian number... goodness.... nobody picks up........

We had to get our Japanese friend who lives in Adelaide, to repeatedly call them, I'm not sure if she even activated her parents ( who lives in Kanazawa) because her message to us was " I left my parents number with them as a contact " 

Anyway, today when we got our hotel to call them to reconfirm the booking as per their instructions... immediately they got thru. hmmmmmmm 

Anyway, don't complain la huh, what matters is.. WE GOT THE RESERVATION! :D

I always order an ume-shu with my dinner

Hirame ( Japanese flounder) 平目

Amaebi ( Sweet shrimp) 甘エビ

Buri ( Japanese amberjack) 鰤 

Some kind of clam

?baby tuna

Fugu Milt ふぐの白子

Its my first time trying fugu milt and IT'S so good! Super creamy and full of umami 

Snow crab with vinegar

This dish is a super stand out for me. I don't think I've ever eaten a snow crab so sweet. The roe was so intense, rich, creamy and fresh

Nodoguro ( Blackthroat sea perch) 赤むつ

If you have read my other posts, it's my favourite white fish !

Tai shirako ( Snapper milt) 鯛の白子

Amaebi ( Sweet shrimp) 甘エビ

Amaebi ( Sweet shrimp) 甘エビ from another angle

Kurodai ( Black seabream) 黒鯛 

Toro ( Come on, I'm sure we all know this..... Fatty tuna)  とろ

Ika ( Squid) いか

Nodoguro Aburi ( Flame grilled blackthroat sea

perch) 赤むつ

Kohada ( Gizzard Shard) コハダ

A tokyo favourite

Aji with vinegar Konbu ( Japanese horse mackeral with vinegar kelp) あじ

I've never eaten a sushi like this before. The vinegar and the aji just blends together so well. 

Saba ( Mackeral )  鯖

Uni gunkan ( You should also know this hahaha. sea urchin  ) 海胆

Miso soup with hata ( Miso soup with grouper) 石班

Anago ( Conger eel) 穴子

It is such such SUCH a satisfying meal with fresh seafood directly from the sea of Japan and rice from Noto peninsula in Ishikawa. I have been repeatedly told by the local Kanawaza residents that if you wanted the best sushi in Kanazawa, THIS IS IT.

I was actually expecting a similar repetoire of fish given we were also in Japan around the same time last year. But it was really quite different , I mean some fish are the same, but they were done differently this time!

I apologise that I can't remember the exact names of the fish I had last year, but I shall let pictures do the talking and perhaps you may take a guess to see how many fish you can identify :p

This was Nicholas last year..... hahaha in the snow... trying to find Otome-zushi.

Told you I like to start my dinner with Ume ( plum wine) haha

 Amaebi ( Sweet shrimp) 甘エビ

Shirako soup ( Milt soup ) 

 Toro 

Nodoguro 

Snow crab with roe 

Uni

Awabi ( abalone) 

Miso soup with hata ( Miso soup with grouper) 石班

Anago ( Conger eel) 穴子

Negitoro handroll 

Really really really enjoyed this meal. Definitely going to be my sushi place to go if I'm in Kanazawa.

Otome-Zushi 乙女寿司 ( 1 Michelin star) 
 4-10 木倉町 Kanazawa, Ishikawa Prefecture 920-0988, Japan
12-2pm, 5-10pm