Ninja Temple
We took the local bus to a Buddhist temple known as the Ninja Temple. The Myoryuji Temple, commonly known as Ninjadera ("Ninja Temple"), was built by the Maeda lords, rulers over the region during the Edo Period. While not actually associated with ninja, the temple earned its nickname because of its many deceptive defenses. There were many booby traps and hidden escape routes used should the temple come under attack. We were unable to take any photographs or videos inside. Outside of the temple many wishes from elementary school children were on display.
Samurai House
After the temple we walked to the Nomura Samurai House. It is an historic home and garden in Nagamachi, a very well preserved district to the west of Kanazawa Castle. Nagamachi was formerly the area where the samurai of Kanazawa lived with their families. Today the area looks pretty much the same as it did in the Edo Era, with canals and cobbled streets that run between tile-topped walls. While viewing some of the Samurai exhibits, our tour guide explained how the movie Star Wars was a remake of the movie The Hidden Fortress, by famous Japanese director Kurosawa. She explained the thesis of a report she worked on while in school on the similarities between the Samurai and Jedi codes.
Curry Lunch
The local market was a short walk away and was a good place to try the local specialty, Kanazawa Curry. You could select your choice of curry sauce with a variety of toppings. Depending on the curry selected, you could select your level of spice. It took a while to explain that level 1 is the most spicy and level 10 was the least.
Gold Leaf Experience
We had a planned gold leaf activity this afternoon. Kanazawa is known for gold leaf because it produces 99% of Japan's gold leaf. Gold leaf is used not only for decoration such as at the famous Kinkakuji Temple in Kyoto (we will visit later in our trip), but now also in cooking and sweets. Soft-serve ice cream wrapped in a whole sheet of gold leaf is unique to Kanazawa. We were able to experience working with gold leaf by creating a design on a set of chopsticks and then using gold leaf to decorate our chopsticks with that design. After some walking around and browsing the gold leaf shops, we took the local bus back to the hotel.
Conveyor Sushi
Our dinner was a at a conveyor belt sushi restaurant with some of our fellow travelers. Unfortunately, the conveyor belt was not delivering our selections and the chefs handed them directly to us. Laurie actually tried some sushi based on what she liked during our sushi making class. Of course she had to get her daily ration of noodles in addition to her sushi. We finished the night with a drink at a bar that overlooked the train station.
