Day 16 Travelling to Kanazawa

Before travelling to Kanazawa we spent the morning at Ninjo-jo Castle opposite our hotel. A very different experience to the evening visit the other day. It was built around 400 years ago for the first Shogun. It contains two Palaces, neither of which allowed photography. Shoes had to be removed and we walked on Tiaami mats. Rooms had beautiful paintings on gold paper of animals, birds and trees. The floors were called "Nightingale floors" as they make a noise like nightingales when people walked on them.

There was plenty to photograph outside though, some very ornate carvings above the main entrance

The windows were paper screens

The gardens looked beautiful in the sunshine

Then we went into a second Palace in the same grounds, Honmaru-goten Palace, built by the 3rd Shogun in 1626

This screen outside gives an idea of the wall paintings inside

We were able to climb the steps of what remains of a keep and had some good views over Kyoto

We then had lunch at a nearby restaurant before collecting our rucksack from the hotel. The hotel shuttle bus was heading to Kyoto station so we got onboard along with a group of Kiwis.

Fun and games at the station but we've learnt to just ask, we were looking for the Thunderbird line which amused us no end!

Thunderbird 27, and we thought that there was only 5! It was one of the new style express trains.

We travelled north alongside Lake Biwa, the land was flat with a mountainous back drop

Our train was a few minutes late leaving and we had a short connection time. Luckily there were QR codes on the backs of the seats for you to watch a video as to where to go. It was a rush but we made it, along with quite a few others we didn't realise that you had to put all 4 of your tickets into the exit gate, it then gave you the 3 back required for the rest of the journey, clever.

The terrain was pretty similar but with some snow capped mountains.

We arrived in Kanazawa around 5 p.m a few minutes taxi ride brought us to our hotel for the next two nights. It's definitely chillier here!

A bit of a rain shower as we headed out for dinner, but the hotel lent us some umbrellas. The restaurant was just a couple of minutes walk it was lovely little family run place with home cooked food. Everything was delicious, as usual.